Belmont University Advent GuideSample

I’ve always thought of the Advent season as a way of remembrance. I figured it was a time for followers of Christ to reflect on the fact that Jesus Christ was born. HELLO. Our LORD and Savior manifesting Himself as both fully human and fully God! It makes sense that we would rejoice and remember this!

However, I did not quite know what I was talking about concerning the reason for this rejoicing. I knew Advent was a time to focus on the coming of the Lord as He came into the world as man, but it was never quite brought to my attention to focus on the future coming of the Lord in this season. I was reflecting on a God centered on the past.

In Luke 20, Jesus is teaching on the resurrection and the eternal life His followers have in God. In verses 37–38, he says, “But in the account of the bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

I was reflecting on a God centered on the dead. I wasn’t reflecting on a God who is still the same God as these past super-powers in faith. No, these PRESENT super-powers in faith. We are alive in Christ. We have our eyes set on eternity in Him. It’s not just that the Christ was born, although that is HUGE. But WE CAN REJOICE! This is about a God that will come again! This is about a God who loves us so much as to let us rest with Him in eternity! This is a season of rejoicing, not just in the Nativity, but in the coming Revelation.

He is not a God who stopped and walked away after the birth of Jesus Christ or the death of Jesus Christ or the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our God is one who is ever present, has not stopped working His miracles and allowing us to be shaped by Him. And He’s coming back!

"God, thank You for the life we have in You. Thank You for your Son, for Your love, and for the hope we have grafted in You, Father. Let us not lose sight of that. Amen."

Haile Di Tieri
Senior, Religion and the Arts