In 2024, I plan to officially begin the Advent Season on December 1. The date of the beginning of Advent varies, but in 2024, it begins on December 1.
I have already talked about several things that I will do to celebrate Advent. I’ll light candles, I’ll play music, I’ll read my Bible, and I’ll share some Bible stories. I’ve also said that I am creating several gardens that I’ll dedicate to Advent this year.
This morning, I began my day by reading the first chapter of Luke, and I was reminded of the importance of John the Baptist in the story of Jesus. The cousin of Jesus, John the Baptist was born a few months before Mary’s Baby was born in Bethlehem.
In Luke 1, we read the God send John the Baptist to prepare for the message of Jesus. I also noticed today that God sent the angel Gabriel to prepare the parents of John for his coming birth. John the Baptist’s parents were elderly and had not been able to have children before that time.
The mother of Jesus was young–probably a young teen–and although she was engaged to Joseph, she was not married yet. Again, the angel Gabriel visited Mary to prepare her for her upcoming pregnancy.
Every time I read the Bible, something different strikes me. Today, I noted some of the ways that God prepared the way for the coming Jesus.
Long before the time of Mary and Joseph, God began preparing for the birth of His Holy Son; He prepared an earth where Jesus would live. He created a beautiful garden and the first people, Adam and Eve. Through the birth of the first couple’s son Seth, God began an ancestry line that would lead to Jesus. Noah was one of the descendants of Seth. Noah is one of the ancestors of Jesus.
God created the nation of Israelites–the people from whom Jesus would come, and he sent Abraham to lead those Israelites. Over and over, God delivered the Israelites from one problem after another. He sent Joseph to Egypt to help the starving and enslaved Israelites. Both Abrahm and Joseph were the ancestors of Jesus. They were part of God’s preparation for His son who would come to save His people.
The prophets of the Old Testament spoke about the coming King and Saviour:
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” Isaiah 7:14
God sent David who was an earthly king. King David was an ancestor of Jesus, and King David’s home was Bethlehem. When Caesar Augusts ordered all the Roman Empire to return to the homes of their ancestors to be counted for the purpose of taxation, Joseph and his betrothed wife traveled to Bethlehem, where the Holy Baby was born in a stable. But before Mary, Joseph, and the Donkey arrived in Bethlehem, God had prepared the stable in a crowded town, where there was no room in any of the inns.
This morning, as I read the first chater of Luke, I noticed that the scriptures spoke of some of the ways that God had preared the way for Jesus to be born:
Zaccharias was the father of John the Baptist, and he said the following after the birth of his son:
67 Now his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying:
68 “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel,
For He has visited and redeemed His people,
69 And has raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of His servant David,
70 As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets,
Who have been since the world began,
71 That we should be saved from our enemies
And from the hand of all who hate us,
72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers
And to remember His holy covenant,
73 The oath which He swore to our father Abraham:
74 To grant us that we,
Being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear,
75 In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.
76 “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest;
For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways,
77 To give knowledge of salvation to His people. Luke 1: 67-77
After I read the first book of Luke, I went out to work in my garden, but I was not planting flowers that I expect to bloom. Instead, I was digging and shoveling dirt into a raised garden bed that I am preparing for a garden that I will not plant until next spring.
Several times, I have said that growing a garden is an exercise of hope and faith.
One of my gardens is named my Hope Garden — It is a garden that I have dedicated to the first week of Advent.
As I said before, I am preparing to begin celebrating Advent, and I am trying to decide which story I’ll tell each day during Advent. Advent is a time of Preparation and Waiting. Today, I realized that there should be a pre-Advent season–a time we prepare to understand what Advent is about.
Advent is coming, and today, as I prepare the soil for another garden, I am preparing my mind for Advent.
I am an impulsive person. I tend to float from dream to dream, but thank goodness, God is not impulsive. He works from plans that are as old as time.
Later in the book of Luke, i’ll read the story of Zaccheus, the “wee little man,” who was not tall enough to catch sight of Jesus who working his way through a crowd that had gathered to see him. Lo and behold, a tree was where Zaccheus was standing, and in order to see the arrival of the Lord, Zaccheus climbed into that tree, where he gained ability to peer over the heads of the masses of people around him.The story of Zaccheus continues, but today I want to concentrated upon the extent of God’s preparation [this time — for Zaccheus]:
Years before Zaccheus would need a tree,
God planted its seed.
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