Advent

  A month-long celebration in remembrance of One who chose to humble himself and come down from heaven, to wear a diaper. To learn how to walk and talk. To obey earthly, human parents. To be ridiculed, mocked, and lied about. He came down from heaven to be abused. Betrayed. Beaten. He came down from heaven, to live on earth, and die nailed naked to a cross for all to see. To be mourned and mocked for hours on end. And then, as if that wasn't bad enough, to have an excruciating separation of relationship with his father. The father who was before so intimately connected with him that he told him everyone before it happened. The father who was so proud of him, that he shouted his affections from the heavens in front of a crowd. This dad now saw his son as a disgusting, dirty pervert. He was detestable to him. He was a liar to him. A cheat. A rapist. An addict. To his dad, he was now a selfish, foolish drunk. Oh, the shame you must have felt on that cross! Oh, the horror of the realization that you were no longer daddy's favorite. He could not even stand to look at you, let alone be in the same room as you. He turned his back on you, for you had now represented all of the sin in the world... including the secret sins that no one ever talks about. And you chose this. From day one, you knew exactly what you were getting into, and you willingly walked into it.

FOR ME.

  The angels anticipated this moment so much that they gathered together to appear on earth to a field of shepherds. They shouted and sang and filled the sky with angelic glory. How could they hold it in? Jesus had come to earth! 

  This month, we exchange gifts in remembrance of the best Gift we ever got that glorious night.