Advent means Coming...

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Advent means coming.

Thank you, God, for you have come and you are always coming.

Thank you, Jesus, that you came to the manger and you come to us every moment in our days.

I am so thankful for a Savior that comes.  I am also so thankful for you, sweet friend.  You are this invitation for me to lean in and share difficulty...and the Wonder that always follows it. You give ME the gift of seeing.  Seeing the grace and miracles and ever-loving activity that Jesus weaves into your life. I treasure you.

I wanted to share a few of my favorite quotes from the Christmas devotional "The Greatest Gift". It helps me so much to hold the Glory of the holidays in the context of our surely broken world.  It helps me to pull down to my believing experiencing place the significance of what we are about to celebrate.

Thank you, Jesus, that you are...

The God who sees.... (Genesis 16:13)
"The one you need when it feels like no one really sees you.  No one sees how alone you really feel.  How over whelmed by the work and unappreciated by the people.  No one sees that you just want someone to cup your face and look into your eyes and say your name from somewhere deep inside, like a calling home, like a belonging --like a holding that has you around all the fragile places and won't leave you. (A.Voskamp. p. 113)

Who give us clarity, who "trains our eyes to see everything inside out" (A.Voskamp  p. 126) (Isaiah 9:2)

The God who cries with us, who fills with pain when we are in pain (Genesis 6:6)

Our Ladder..."every Christmas tree is a ladder and Jesus is your ladder who hung on that Tree...so you can have the gift of rest. When you are wrung out, that is the sign you've been reaching for rungs." (A.Voskamp p. 70)

He is the Rope that is our lifeline, undoing  lack... of time, satisfaction, contentment, performance, acceptance, show, presentation, effect, outcome... (Joshua 2:1-21)

He Who takes the places where we're torn to pieces and makes thin places where we touch the peace of God" (A.Voskamp p. 79)

The Hound of Heaven that "storms after you till you have the gift you need"... (A.Voskamp p. 159) (Johan 1:1-3; 17; 2:10; 3:1-5)


"Advent is made of moments. Here in the midst of the inconceivable, the loud claims, the hard sells, the big spectacles, Christ comes small, the micro-macro-miracle who comes in the whisper and says "seek me".  Just where you are, look for the small glimpses of God-glory breaking in, breaking out, sprouting, shooting, unfurling, bearing fruit, making a Kingdom, remaking the world. Slow and still...gaze on shoots of glory to grow deep roots in God." (A.Voskamp. 2013)

Come, let us adore Him.

Merry Christmas,


A.Voskamp. 2013. The Greatest Gift.  Tyndale House. Carol stream, Illinois..

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