Category: Advent

a pandemic advent – peace

I told my friends last week that all I want for Christmas is peace in my house. It was kind of a joke, but it was mostly true. I’m late in writing my advent post this week. That’s mostly because I feel unqualified to write on this week’s topic—peace.

I heard the bells on Christmas day. Their old familiar carols play. And mild and sweet their songs repeat. Of peace on earth good will to men. And in despair, I bowed my head. “There is no peace on earth,” I said.

To be very transparent, my home has felt pretty much everything but peaceful this week. My kids’ trauma histories and mental health challenges are threatening to take over. And anyone who has children from hard places can tell you that the holidays bring. it. all. out. It’s all out, guys. And the peace seems to be walking out the door with it.

This is the time of year that adoptive parents love and dread. Of course we love Christmas! It is simply the most wonderful time of the year! But all of the excitement around the season heightens anxieties for the little ones we love.

Grief over broken relationships looms strong. The longing for first families pulls at their hearts in a way I will never know. And this is what I dread. I wish it weren’t so. It can be so hard as a parent to calm their anxious and grieving hearts and to bring peace to their precious souls.

I think we all are feeling a little bit of this. Of course, everyone’s life and circumstance is different. But I think it’s safe to say that this year, perhaps more than in the past, we all long for a little whole lot more peace here on earth.

This pandemic has stirred up discord, and I do not have time to list all the ways we have “no peace.” But that’s what makes this week’s reminder so glorious.

Then rang the bells more loud and deep. God is not dead, nor doth he sleep! The wrong shall fail, the Right prevail, with peace on earth, good-will to men.*

Praise the Lord, God brings peace for our weary and broken souls! He promises peace for those who fix their eyes on Him.

You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you
because he trusts in you.
Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.

-Isaiah 26:3-4

This season, we can remember that God is working. He is in control. He is everlasting. He will keep us in His perfect peace.

And we can remember, especially during this advent season, that God loved us so deeply that he sent his son Jesus to rule and reign in our hearts and in the Kingdom to come.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

-Isaiah 9:6

May we remember that God has promised to bring peace to our souls. Friend, cling tightly to this promise! May He keep us all in his peace, overflowing to our lives and homes-—even when our homes seem chaotic and unruly. God is bigger than the unrest of our human hearts.

Share the promise with your children, and pray that it may bring rest for the tumultuous waters of their hearts, too! And may we look forward with anticipation to the everlasting peace we will enjoy forever when Jesus rules as the Prince of Peace.

*For the rest of this great, Christmas-time hymn from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and a timely history of its context, read this from Justin Taylor.

a song of hope

Our family loves music. It’s one way we communicate. We really believe that music and song have a way of reaching the heart that written words simply do not. Music stirs our affections.

In that vain, I wanted to share a song for each advent idea. Some are “Christmas songs,” and some aren’t. Feel free to listen to these songs by yourself or together with your family. Use them to begin discussions. I pray that they will stir your affections for the Lord in this season, and aid in keeping your heart stayed on him.

One of my favorite Christmas songs is “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.” I love how it is filled with hope for the Messiah and the fulfillment of that hope in Jesus! This is my most favorite arrangement, by Red Mountain Music. Enjoy!

Come thou long expected Jesus

Come Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free
From our fears and sins release us
Let us find our rest in Thee
Israel’s strength and consolation
Hope of all the earth Thou art
Dear desire of every nation
Joy of every longing heart

Born Thy people to deliver
Born a child and yet a King
Born to reign in us forever
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring
By Thine own eternal spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone
By Thine all sufficient merit
Raise us to Thy glorious throne

By Thine all sufficient merit
Raise us to Thy glorious throne

a pandemic advent – hope

There are certainly a lot of things we can hope for in our current climate. I hope this newest virus surge begins to abate. I hope no more of those that I love will be affected by COVID-19. I hope 2021 is less dramatic. I hope we can soon “put this all behind us.”

But honestly, I know that none of those things that I hope for are guaranteed. The surge may well continue to grow exponentially. Many more people, even possibly I, will be afflicted with COVID-19. 2021 will likely not be much different than 2020. And at this point, I don’t really even know what “putting this all behind us” can possibly look like.

Still, we hope

But still, we can — and should — have hope! We just need to place our hope in the right place. There is a space between hoping in our circumstances and feeling hopeless because of our circumstances. Thankfully, we do not have to fall into either ditch. We can stand on the firm Rock of Jesus.

The Bible says we should hold fast to the hope that we have before us — and that the hope we have is like a sure and steadfast anchor for our souls. Because Jesus has entered the holy place on our behalf. We can hold fast to that hope which steadies us when we feel that our feet may slip. Jesus has come. Jesus has become the sacrifice. Jesus will return to rule and reign.

Christmastime hope

If your house is anything like mine, there is much talk of Christmas-y things from the kids. I love how much our kids love Christmas. They love the traditions. They love the lights. They love the decorations. They love the cookies. And the candy canes. And getting to sing Christmas carols and “Happy Birthday” to Jesus.

And the presents. Shhhh. Don’t read that one too loudly. They might hear you.

As our children excitedly hope for Christmas to come — and hope for that special present they keep conspicuously inserting into nearly every conversation — let’s remind them of all that we can truly hope in. Our circumstances this year are oh so different than ever before. Sickness and isolation and division and scarcity are all around. But our Hope is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Our hope is Jesus. He has come, and He is coming again.

a pandemic advent

In our family, we recognize and observe the Advent season — the days leading up to Christmas Day. As we decorate our house and put up the lights, I count it all as part of the Advent season. It is a beautiful season of preparation, cultivating a delight in the true Light of the world.

Advent is a time of waiting as we look forward to celebrating the coming of the Christ child. God incarnate. Savior, born to us.

From the Latin, advent literally means “coming”. As Christians, we know that there are actually two “comings” of Christ — two advents, if you will. During the Christmas Advent season, we can celebrate both.

The first advent was when Christ came as a baby. That’s what we celebrate at Christmas! The second advent is when Christ returns to rule and reign in the new heavens and new earth. This hasn’t happened yet. But we certainly look forward to the glorious day!

So Advent season is a time when we look back and remember with gratitude and awe that …

“… unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

Luke 2:11

And, …

… being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Philippians 2:8

It is also a time when we look forward with anticipation to the day when we can say with the heavenly host:

Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;

Revelation 19:7

And, as prophesied, …

… the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be one and his name one.

Zechariah 14:9

How amazing!

Well this year, advent comes with a new and different weight than we are used to. We are all — Christian and unbeliever alike — looking back and looking forward. We are longing for the days that were, before the world changed. And we are looking forward to the day that we can return to “normal.” What a blessed opportunity we have as Christians to celebrate advent and share it with those around us. We can focus on the One who truly is able fulfill all of our longings.

Traditionally, the four weeks of advent walk through four ideas. They differ depending on who you ask. But as we walk through this season in the midst of a pandemic, I want to focus on how these ideas can help us parent our children with a gospel focus. We can point our eyes, and our children’s eyes, toward Hope, Joy, Peace, and Love — all of these coming from, and fulfilled in, Christ.

May this season be refreshing for us all as we try, by God’s grace, to focus on what is eternal rather than what is temporal. Because we all know that this year, the temporal is vying for our attention like never before. May this season be hopeful, joyful, peaceful, and running over with love.