Let's Just Call This an Advent Series!

In keeping with the recent Advent posts, let's just continue to make this a series on Advent!  To refresh our memories, Advent is the time leading up to Christmas.  It's a time to "prepare" for the birth of a Savior.  Advent can be practiced by lighting candles, opening paper doors on a calender, or any number of physical displays of preparation.  However, Advent can also be a mindful practice to prepare your heart for the thrill of this Christmas season.

In my personal exercise of Advent this morning, I have drawn a line from the temple in which the baby Jesus was brought directly to the temple that the grown up Jesus was brought for trial of crimes He did not commit.

Joseph and Mary followed Jewish law.  After eight days of cleansing post birth, a Jewish baby was brought by his parents to the temple to be presented to the priest.  This was an act of obedience on Joseph and Mary's part.

As a baby, any human is helpless and totally dependent on others for all needs.  Yet, when I follow that line from this God baby to the end of his earth life, I see him in a temple setting again.  Put on trial for crimes His own people falsified to get religious justice, He came helpless and He came totally dependent on others for all needs.

But wait, isn't Jesus also God?  Yep.  But how could He exercise His rights as King of the Jews without fulfilling His human purpose on the planet?  He had to become helpless and dependent to sacrifice His life for ours.  Sin had a price to pay.  He was the currency.

But wait ... there's more!

• When the baby Jesus was brought to the temple, He was set apart as holy.  When grown up Jesus was brought to the cross, we were set apart as holy.
• When baby Jesus was brought to the temple, His parents brought a sacrifice as a sin offering.  The traditional ask was a lamb (see Leviticus 5:5-7).  His parents could not afford that sin offering price and brought a lessor offering:  two young pigeons.  When grown up Jesus was offered as a sacrifice as our sin offering, we could not afford the sin price.  Instead of allowing us to bring a lessor offering, God provided the choice lamb, Jesus, to pay our price.
• When the baby Jesus was brought to the temple, His parents brought a sin sacrifice.  But when grown up Jesus was brought to the cross, He was the sin sacrifice!

Oh friends, when we take the time to look deeply at the simplicity of the Gospel, especially during this festive season, we should come undone.  Undone by the acts of obedience that led to our freedom!  We are so deeply loved.  May the scenes of the baby in the manger trigger our thoughts to the reality of the Savior on the cross.

Advent.  May you give space to experience who this baby is and what He came to do,
Christina