Advent Devotional from Lutherans Connect

“Annunciazione” by Leonard da Vinci, c 1472.

Throughout Advent, Lutherans Connect will be presenting daily devotional meditations through facebook and an online blog.  The theme for this year, “Treasuring the Word” has this description:

“My soul waits for the Lord. More than watchmen for the morning. More than watchmen for the morning.” (Psalm 130)

Advent is a time of waiting, mystery and a longing for a movement out of darkness and into light. In our own dark and troubling times, there are people in the world who experience an unimaginable challenge of ‘waiting’. A migrant community waits at closed borders for somewhere to call home. Aid workers wait for the supplies that will allow them to serve others. Families wait for news of a missing or captive child. The rest of us wait with them, and do whatever we can to manifest signs of hope. As Christians, we wait for Jesus always. In Advent, we remember and live in the wait that preceded the birth of Jesus. And in the spirit of those watchmen, we wait for the dawn of a new creation.

It is hard to think of patient watching and waiting, however, when we can look ahead and see one of the busiest times of the year. Finding a few moments to be still and to listen for God’s presence can also feel challenging when pressed by the urgent and frightening headlines reminding us of all that is disordered in our world.

But waiting and watching can help us remember hope. And hope is how we find light in darkness.

This Advent, give yourself the gift of a few minutes’ quiet every day in which to find peace, rest, and perhaps envision and rediscover hope as you wait for the birth of Jesus. To assist you, starting on November 27th and continuing daily until Christmas Eve, Lutherans Connect will publish a new devotional meditation every day. As we have done in the past, these daily devotions will include an image, some scripture, music, and a reflection to help guide you in your prayerful rest.

Our title this Advent is “Treasuring the Word”. The two inspiring phrases come from the response of Mary to the news of the Annunciation “let it be with me according to your word” (Lk 1:38) and the verse which describes Mary listening to the shepherds speak of the wonders of Jesus’ birth — “Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart” (Lk 2:19). The Greek word used for ‘treasure’ means ‘to keep closely within oneself’. How do we ‘treasure’ the words of Scripture as we prepare for the coming of the Word made flessh? Each day in Advent we will focus on a biblical word that appears in both the Old and New Testaments which in some way takes us back to Jesus as ‘the word made flesh’. Exploring Greek and Hebrew origins, we will reflect on how the biblical ideas of creation, new creation and the Word, are manifest in Jesus’ birth.

In addition, the biblical story offers us many mothers, and many mothers of prophets. In the days ahead, we will encounter some of those women in a time of waiting, before or after childbirth. We will also visit contemporary mothers of ordinary and extraordinary children who wait for a time when their children may find their strong voice in the world.

Join us this Advent as we mark the days before the nativity. Find the peace which rests in the mystery of waiting.

Access through facebook on the Lutherans Connect page.
Access the blog at LC† Treasuring the Word.