Illuminate Advent Sample

Illuminate Christ Day 1

Jesus is born! The light of life has come! When you read the Bible, the distance between the last book of the Old Testament and the first book of the New Testament is the turning of a page. In reality, it was over 400 years. That’s a long time to be waiting and longing for Immanuel to come.

The longing for the hope, joy, peace, and love that Christ would bring can be seen throughout the Old Testament. The foreshadowing of the coming of the King of Kings is not just seen in the prophecies about Him, but that He was there from the very beginning. He was the Breath of Life, Redeemer, Shepherd, Bridegroom, Passover Lamb, Restorer, and the Righteous Branch to name a few of the foretellings of the coming of Jesus.

This is important to remember when thinking about Christ’s birth. There was this anticipation for His coming to earth. Then suddenly, He is born. It is the dividing of time. God is with us; He came to earth to make a way for us to be with Him for all time. This is why the angels could not stay silent and had to burst out singing praises to God. The darkness could not understand it, but the Light of Life was now with mere mortal men on a course to redeem and restore the lost— to bring them into an abiding relationship with Him -- to come and set free those that have been in bondage to sin, death, hell, and the grave. 

He was just a baby, but a baby that would grow up to be the Lion of Judah that died, rose, ascended into Heaven and is coming again. We cannot just simply look at Christmas as a time to celebrate the coming of the baby without looking to what that baby would become and do. 

This time of year, it is good etiquette to say “Merry Christmas”, give, care, to celebrate Christ’s birth, and so on and so on. We celebrate the birth of the coming of the Savior of the whole world; however, we act as if we are engaging in a wintertime fantasy with elves and Santa coming down the chimney. These are all fine to enjoy and participate in, although the question remains: shouldn’t the celebration of Jesus Christ coming to earth to be a bit more important? That is, it should cause us to pause and think about what it truly means to each of us that Christ came to save us from the kingdom of darkness and bring us into His glorious kingdom of light.

This is the reason for the season, this is why we keep Christ at the center of Christmas. It’s a holiday because it is a holy day. It’s not just another day, not just another fantasy; it’s the reality that God loved us so much He came to earth for us.

One of the biggest things during Advent and the Christmas season is all of the different lights that individuals put up around their homes. This brings illumination to the surroundings. The same is true for those that have Christ as their Lord and Savior. He is the light, and we are the carriers of that light to the world around us. God asks us to be the ones that will share the Light of Life with others by sharing His love with the world around us in a practical way. 

Take Away:

1. In what ways do you see the illumination of Christ in your Christmas traditions?

2. How do you plan to share the love of Jesus with others this Christmas season?