Cindy Bunch - Advent of the Savior

Two years ago I made plans to go on a silent Advent retreat with my mother. I had been attending the overnight retreats sponsored by Karen Mainss Hungry Souls ministry for several years. They take place midweek in the first week of December. Its hard to think of going away at such a busy time of year, but I had found these retreats to be a beautiful way to focus my thoughts on Christ during the season ahead. This year Id invited my mother to fly in to join me.

When I walked out of the house to put a suitcase in the car, our nine-month-old puppy followed me. He decided to make a break for it, dashing out the garage door and around the corner toward the local restaurants and shops with me chasing him about a half block behind. I watched in horror as he ran into the street, straight into the wheel of a car. He was thrown back onto the snowy, wet curb and was in a snarling lump when I reached him.

I got him back home and wrapped him up in towels just as my mother arrived at my house ready for our contemplative retreat. I, however, was not exactly in a peaceful frame of mind. Instead I was wondering if our puppy had any broken bones and whether we should take him to the vet, and at the same time was feeling angry at his bad behavior (not the first such offense!).

This is the stuff of real-life spirituality. As we try to make space for God, our devotion is interrupted by the world around us as life presses in. Yet, a $325 x-ray determined that my dog was actually finejust bruisedand so my mother and I did have an opportunity to open our hearts for the coming of Christ.

The weeks preceding Christmas can be one of the most difficult times for us to focus on God. We feel the weight of buying gifts, preparing for guests, putting up the Christmas tree and stringing the lights, baking cookies and fitting in parties all alongside our regular work lives. Sometimes it feels more like work than celebration.

It takes great intentionality to make space for Christ during the Christmas season. Maybe thats why the Scriptures offer so many angles from which to view the birth of Christthe perspectives of his parents, his aunt and uncle, shepherds doing a days work, far-off Magi and nearby despotseven the perspective of the prophets who preceded him by centuries. These Bible studies take up each of those perspectives in the hopes that you will get a fresh vision of the coming Christ.

When we allow ourselves to enter into it, Scripture reminds us that Christmas is not a task to be done but a celebration to be marveled at.