The First Sunday of Advent

The Blessings of This Day

The season of Advent is about time. The passage of time is a recurrent theme within Advent. In this mortal life we all live within time, of course. Advent nudges us to reflect upon the passage of time. The primary symbols of Advent are about time. The Advent wreath on which we light additional candles as the weeks pass. The Advent calendar which marks the passing days of the season.

All seasons cover a span of time, but Advent is defined primarily as time—the time between a set beginning and a defined end. Advent is the time before Christmas. It doesn’t so much have its own identity as it is just time before Christmas. Time which starts four Sundays before Christmas Day.

We often talk about the time of Advent as time for hopeful waiting. A time when, in our spiritual lives, we savor the sweetness of anticipation. Advent reassures us of the sureness of God’s promise, a promise that will be fulfilled in a future time. We hope that as this season draws us forward, it also draws us closer to God.

This year I’ve been thinking about Advent as a time spent waiting for God. In all aspects of our lives, we miss a lot if we’re spending our time just waiting for the future. No matter how faithfully or hopefully we may be waiting, if we’re just waiting for some future event, we’re missing the present. I don’t think God intentionally tarries just to teach us how to wait.

Maybe Advent is less about waiting and more a lesson in learning how to praise the blessing of time. Time itself is a gift. Don’t waste it waiting. Don’t waste the gift of time in impatience or indifference or in a blind focus on some future event or expectation.

Advent is not just one more countdown. We’re good at those… counting down the time as we await some exciting event. We countdown to space launches (or we used to) and that exciting roar of liftoff to adventure and exploration. A prisoner counts down the days to release. Our culture counts down the shopping days until Christmas (with stress and excitement). A school child counts down the days to vacation with eager anticipation. We countdown time, eager to put it behind us as we wait for the excitement of the future.

Advent is more than a holy countdown.

I’ve been thinking about the difference between an Advent calendar and a calendar on which we are counting down the days to vacation or some other exciting event. I think over the years I’ve undervalued the power of the Advent calendar as a symbol, seeing it as just another way to count the days until Christmas. To remind you how an Advent calendar works: They should start today, the first Sunday of Advent, although the ones you buy in the stores will start December 1. A window or door covers each day. And as that day comes, you open the window and there is always a wonderful treat inside. Sometimes it’s chocolate, or a word of encouragement, or a beautiful picture. It’s always a treat, a blessing, a source of joy.

On calendars when we are “counting down the days” we X off each day as it passes. It’s X’ed out… over with, gone, useless. All we want from those days is to get them behind us so that we can cross them off and get closer to whatever we await in the future.

In an Advent calendar, each day is a window that opens upon a treat, a blessing.

Advent reminds us to cherish the present time, to celebrate the joy of this day. As time passes, each day brings a gift, a blessing from God.

During this Advent season, we do look forward to the celebration of our Savior’s birth. But I’m encouraged also to look to time much closer at hand. We have a whole span of days before us. And a treat is offered to us in every single one of them.