Today is the first Sunday of Advent.
It’s also December 1st and the race is on to buy happiness.
That’s what we’re trying to do right? Make someone happy at Christmas? You bet!
The weeks leading up to Christmas are chaotic with meals to plan and groceries to buy. Gifts. Wrapping. Decorating.
I’ve struggled through the years with this whole gift thing, not for any other reason than I’m an awkward gift-giver.
Some gifts I’ve given looked like there was no thought put into it at all because my wrapping skills are horrendous. Sometimes I’ve purchased the wrong thing; my indecisiveness head-locking me until Christmas Eve when I’m in desperation mode.
The worst thing is that advertising for Christmas seems to start earlier and earlier and so the potential for anxiety starts sooner too.
I love that Advent shows up right now. Right in the heart of crazy-time.
Advent poses a simple question…in this, one of the busiest times of the year will you quiet your heart and re-focus on Jesus?
I think about Jesus, I sputter softly under my breath.
When? My heart softly challenges my head.
Usually as we read the Christmas story on Christmas Eve, that’s when! By then I’m a frazzled, sweaty, hot mess; my thoughts pinging around my brain thinking about everything I still have to get done.
Martha-esq I flutter around and can’t settle.
Advent asks me to settle.
Am I alone in this? I don’t think so.
Christmas prep runs parallel to insanity these days. The website Investopedia posted an article on Nov 8/19 called “The Average Cost of an American Christmas”. This is an excerpt, and I quote,
“According to a study performed by the National Retail Federation, Americans were projected to spend more money on gifts in 2018 than they did at any other time. According to a Gallup study, American adults projected to spend approximately $920 on gifts per person, up from $885 per person last year, with total holiday spending exceeding $1 trillion nationwide. According to the above study, in 2018 the breakdown on gift buying was:
- 33% expected to spend at least $1000 on gifts.
- 22% expected to spend between $500 and $999.
- 29% expected gift spending to be between $100 and $499.
- 3% planned to spend less than $100.
For 2019, industry experts expect the average American to spend $920 per person on holiday gifts, up from $885 in 2018 and reaching a total of more than $1 trillion in holiday spending.”
WOW!
The birth of Christ was so humble, so holy in its simplicity! In the pursuit of gift-o-mania, have we traded something sacred for insanity?
Yes.
Can I ask you slow down with me and think about Jesus?
James 1:17 says “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
Gift giving is sacred and there is no better gift-giver than God!
Sacred.
Hopelessness envelops us when we’re scared about what tomorrow will bring. It curls its ugly arms around us when we’re afraid that things might change – a lost job, a marriage split, an illness that threatens.
Often at this time of year we try to plug the hopeless hole with buying too much stuff and focusing on the wrong things. We get busy placing more weight, more bearing, more value on things that don’t last.
I’m here to remind you that there’s been anther option all along.
In his outstretched hands, God holds a marvelous gift and all that we need to do is unwrap it. The gift is perfect in every way because it comes with an eternal guarantee never to rust, fade, warp or break.
Hope.
Hope focuses on Jesus. Hopelessness focuses fear.
The gift of hope is so powerful. Hope reminds us that we matter to God. Hope gives us a reason to get up in the morning and a security in knowing our lives have value to our Creator.
Listen to the hope we have in Christ…
John 11:25-26 “Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Rom 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
Psalm 121:1-2 “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
Some of you attend churches that celebrate Advent and will be lighting the Candle of Hope today. Whether you celebrate Advent or not, let’s focus on Jesus. The gift of God through the birth of his Son Jesus fills us with hope, both for today and for eternity.
It is the first gift of Advent.