The First Sunday of Advent: A Season of Hope
Advent. The very word stirs up a sense of anticipation, doesn’t it? It means “coming” or “arrival,” and for us as believers, it’s a season to reflect on the most glorious arrival in history—our Savior, Jesus Christ, leaving Heaven to dwell among us. This Sunday, the first candle of the Advent wreath, the HOPE candle,…
On the 12th Day of Christmas….Epiphany
“On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me…….” Let’s talk about those 12 days of Christmas. The true Christmas season starts on Christmas Day, the 25th. And it marks the official start of the 12 days of Christmas, and that relentlessly stick-in-your-head Christmas carol. But there’s so much more than the…
Let the Joy Bells Ring
Today is the third Sunday of Advent and we should be singing “Go Tell It on the Mountain”! Well, not necessarily from a mountain. That would mean we’d have to go climbing! Perhaps we can start right here at ground zero to be joy-filled and full of the good news of Christ’s coming to this…
Time to Stop, Look and Be Blessed
Last Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent. We’re making the trek to Bethlehem and the night that Christ was born. Today, the second candle that represents peace will be lit. Those of us who have purposed to slow down and are stopping to look for the sights, sounds, and gentle nudges of Father God…
The Greatest Love Story
I love hearing people’s love stories and I love telling our love story. I am a hopeless romantic. A hopeless romantic is a person who continues to believe in love, no matter the struggles they might have experienced in the past. They choose to see the positive in relationships over the negative, believing wholeheartedly that…
An Insatiable Desire for Advent
Today is the first Sunday of Advent. The first candle lit on the Advent wreath symbolizes HOPE. I HOPE that my attention to this time will cause an insatiable desire for leaning into the real reason for the season. Even in the midst of busyness, we can have an insatiable desire to take time to…
Welcome, December!
Aw! The month of Advent and Christmas, and for my Jewish friends, the beautiful, upcoming days of Hanukkah — The Festival of Lights. You may be one not-so-invested in the holidays when it seems everyone else is getting their holly-jolly-selves on! They’re cheerful, happy, all caught up in their blessing moods while you are in…
Do You Hear What I Hear?
The second verse of this wonderful Christmas carol is:“Said the little lamb to the Shepherd boy,Do you hear what I hear? Ringing through the sky Shepherd boy.Do you hear what I hear? A song, a song, high above the trees,With a voice as big as the sea. With a voice as big as the sea.”…
Stop, Look and Go Tell
For a short while on Friday, I allowed myself to get caught up in the holiday traffic frenzy and search out Christmas sales that included long check-out lines. I really endeavored to be “holly jolly” with my best attitude while keeping “all is calm, and all is bright” in my heart! We’re officially in the…
Bah Humbug!
That expression is well-known as the catchphrase of miserly old Ebenezer Scrooge, the main character in Charles Dickens’ 1843 novel, “A Christmas Carol.” Scrooge, who thinks Christmas is an enormous deception, retorts, “Bah! Humbug!” to anyone who dares to wish him a merry Christmas! It’s December 1st when we get into the pondering and reflecting…