Postures Of Advent: A Daily Christmas DevotionalSýnishorn

Christmas is coming, and with it, shopping and lists and family gatherings and somehow more decorations coming out of storage than we put away last year.

We’re trying to find a sliver of space on the calendar to squeeze in just one more Christmas celebration. The advertisements all around us scream that we need the best, biggest, latest and greatest this season. It leaves us completely overwhelmed.

It’s not long before we’re desperately asking: Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?

We want to see Him. We wish all the decorations, shopping, materialism and buzz could usher us to the manger. But it turns out the shiny, white Christmas we buy each year doesn’t really reflect the intertwining event in a stable that first Christmas.

It can be so easy to forget that this season is about worshipping Jesus just like the Wise Men did with such determination all those years ago. Despite the politics, greed, material wealth all around them, they fixed their eyes on one thing: going to worship Him.

What would happen if we started this Advent season by fixing worshipful eyes on Christ? 

Bea, a Compassion-sponsored teenager from the Philippines, has seen what can happen when she puts Jesus at the centre of her life, fixing her eyes on Him. Despite her family being broken, with her father in prison, she has hope:

“Jesus is the glue that holds our family together. If God were not the centre of our family, with our father in prison, there’s no telling what kind of a person I would be now.” – Bea

Bea’s worshipful posture, with her eyes lifted and fixed on Christ, is a beautiful image of how we can enter this season. There is so much vying for our attention. It’s easy to get distracted from Christ, who is the centrepiece of this season and the reason we give gifts, throw parties, and gather as family.

He is worthy of our praise and attention. Let us come and worship Him.

Pray: 

Jesus, in this season that can get busy and distracting, with family to see and meals to make and lists to complete, help me to fix worshipful eyes on You. You are the centrepiece of this season. We have come to worship You. 

Amen.