How do you celebrate the run up to Christmas? Do you have an Advent calendar, an Advent candle or some other way of counting down to December 25th?
Sometimes on Twitter I’ll ask “does anyone have any prayer requests today?”. Please know that I really mean that when I ask and I take them all seriously. Every now and then I take time out to pray for my online community, as you are a very important and real part of my life!
As I prayed for you all – us all – I felt like God said a few things to me, so I thought I’d share them.
I opened the first door on my Advent Calendar and felt like God was saying this Advent that he wants to open up the doors inside our lives that we have left closed to others and closed to him.
- “God enters by a private door into each individual”- Ralph Waldo Emerson
In the same way that he came to Earth to dwell with us by stepping down from heaven and into time and space, he wants to step into our inner lives and occupy every place. The Greek terms in the New Testament that describe the incarnation say that Jesus ‘pitched his tent among us’. In that same way, he wants to pitch his tent inside our inner world -to be at home there and let us know that he enjoys living on the inside of our souls.
I don’t know about your house, but my apartment is usually messy! Maybe it’s because I’m a musician?! There is always at least one room that’s a DISASTER and I’ll keep everything stuffed in there when visitors come and usher them past it’s closed door so that we spend our time in the neat tidy rooms!
Are there rooms in your inner world that you usher people and God, past? Are there parts of yourself that you assume God doesn’t like or love, and that you keep locked and in darkness? Perhaps things from long ago in childhood, or things you’ve done that you deeply regret, or things that have been done to you. As the hymn says “Jesus take me as I am, I can come no other way”. This is the only way we can come to him – just as we are, in authenticity and honesty, even if we wish some of our ‘baggage’ didn’t exist. He longs, like a perfect Father, to catch us up in his arms and love every single part of who we have been, who we are and who we will be.
Advent comes from the Latin term ‘adventus’ meaning ‘coming’. It’s a time of waiting in expectancy – both for us and for God. We waited for him to arrive as the Rescuer. Now he waits for us to crack the doors of our selves open a little more each day, letting him in.
So as we open the doors on our calendars and celebrate Jesus walking into our universe, let’s also invite him to walk into our inner world and pour his love and light into the rooms that have long sat dormant.
If that resonates with you, then take time this December to think it over and invite him into those inner rooms you didn’t think he could occupy.
Emmanuel, God is with us. With us in every part of our deepest selves. Now THAT is good news to all! Hosanna in the highest.
Over to you:
- This is a more introspective post, so feel free to just think it over rather than comment, if you’d rather.
- Does the message of this post resonate with you? In what way?
- Do you think much about the season of “Advent” or just about Christmas eve/day? The time leading up to Christmas is so rich with significance, it’s worth really celebrating it in it’s own right.
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