For some of us the word “Advent” brings to mind itsy, bitsy chocolates behind teensy, weensy cardboard doors on decorative three-dimensional calendars that count down to Christmas. As a kid, I desperately wanted my mom to buy one of those calendars with all the petite sweets behind the darling doors that were mysteriously associated with Jesus’s birth.
Alas my sweet mama was Baptist to the bone and back in the day the Baptists in our hometown associated Advent with our Catholic neighbors.
Like the Brooks family who lived down the street from us who had a whole bunch of friendly kids to play with. They ate fish on Fridays and their mom bought multiple Advent calendars every holiday season with gobs of diminutive desserts for her brood to enjoy. Which made me guiltily grieve my family’s Protestant DNA. I mean, goodness gracious, not only did the Brooks get to savor crispy fried cod on Fridays while I was gagging down Mom’s regular week’s end fare of liver and onions, but they got all those tiny treats through which to celebrate baby Jesus, too!
As silly as my childhood misunderstandings about Advent were, I’ve met more than a few adults who still don’t quite get what Advent is all about (although none of them seem to be quite as obsessed as I was about those wee cacao confections).
What Is Advent All About?
The word “Advent” comes from the Latin word adventus, which means arrival or coming. The celebration of Advent dates back the 4th and 5th Centuries when it marked the season of preparation for the baptism of new Christians at the January feast of Epiphany.
During that ancient season of preparation, Christ-followers spent forty days in penance, prayer, and fasting prior to Epiphany. In fact, it wasn’t until the Middle Ages, that Advent became solely connected with the birth of Jesus.
And while joy was certainly one facet of those old Advent celebrations, there was also a sobriety to the season as our ancestors of the faith spent much of those forty days marinating in the harsh reality that our Messiah’s incarnation was necessitated by our need for a Savior. That He had to be born in order to die, because His blood was the only thing that could atone for our sins.
Early practitioners of Advent viewed Christmas through the lens of Good Friday. Their posture was one of humility and hope. Loss and longing. Waiting and wonder. It revealed the juxtapositional reality of our existence between two Advents — the first when the Divine came to earth in a suit of skin as Immanuel, God With Us, and the second, when King Jesus will return triumphantly to claim us as His bride!
Adopted Into Advent
Deitrich Bonhoeffer described the poignant posture of humility and hope, loss and longing, waiting and wonder in this keen literary observation: “The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come.” And my daughter Missy modeled that posture in a way I’ll never forget the first Advent season we got to celebrate together, just a few months after I brought her home from Haiti through the miracle of adoption, after her dear first mother’s death.
It happened in December 2014 when I took her for her first photo session with Santa. (I know some of you probably winced when you read that last bit because y’all think only pagans and the backslidden let their children take pictures with Santa Claus. However, I’d like to point out that I didn’t get to become Missy’s second mama until the year I turned fifty, and after trying to keep a stiff upper lip through dozens of “single and childless” holidays I’ll be darned if I wasn’t going to have at least one picture of my precious baby girl with Good Ole St. Nick! Please keep reading though because I can assure you I did my level best to put the whole nostalgic experience in proper Biblical context.)
Evangelizing Santa
Missy was five years old then, spoke very little English, had never really celebrated Christmas in Haiti, and was thoroughly confused about all the hubbub concerning the pudgy dude in the red velvet suit. I didn’t want to confuse her with sentimentalism, but I also didn’t want to snuff out the faint glimmer of innocent anticipation she had regarding her first Christmas. So I did my best to explain that the whole point of Christmas was Jesus’s birthday — that it was when we celebrate Him coming to earth and being born as a baby boy in Bethlehem, who would grow up to become the Savior of the world, and who is now in heaven, sitting at the right hand of our Heavenly Father and “interceding” — or talking to God — about us.
Then I carefully explained how Santa is sort of like a human cartoon (although his character is based on a very old, really nice guy named Saint Nicolas), who helps deliver presents every December, and since he isn’t invisible like Jesus he tends to get a lot of attention even though it isn’t his birthday. I’m sure you can imagine that by the time I finished my merry monologue Missy’s wariness had increased, as was evidenced by her extreme reticence to sit on Santa’s lap!
I was finally able to coax her into posing for a picture with him, but she made it clear that she wasn’t happy about it. She arched her tiny body away from him, gave him some serious stink eye, and then asked with gruff suspicion, “Do you know Jebus?” I could tell that kind, faux Santa was flustered when he cocked his head a smidge to the side and asked gently, “What did you say, honey?” At which point, Missy’s eyebrows furrowed, and she repeated the question more emphatically, “DO. YOU. KNOW. JEBUS?”
The poor guy glanced over at me with a Please help me out here, Lady! expression because she had such a thick Creole accent that he couldn’t understand her. So I quickly explained how I’d told her that he was simply one of Jesus’s friends here on earth who helps with all the birthday festivities. At which point that dear man turned to Missy and exclaimed joyfully, “Ho, ho, ho, I sure do know Jesus honey…He’s my very best friend!”
The Real Hero of Christmas
I still find myself smiling when I think about my daughter’s innocent boldness with Mr. Claus and her insistence about Jesus. Even at five, Missy knew who the real hero of Christmas is and her preoccupation with the Prince of Peace is the very essence of Advent.
Join me and my friend Christine Caine as we (like Missy) seek Jesus in the Marvel and Miracle of the Advent season. Advent isn’t just about waiting… let’s get ready for Christmas with a fresh sense of anticipation! Sign up for this short 4-week study and get access to 4 study videos with Christine and Lisa and other Advent resources — all free when you sign up!
Want more? Or prefer to read rather than watch? Enter into this season of expectation with our Bible study guide, The Marvel and Miracle of Advent: Recapturing the Wonder of Jesus Living with Us.
Lisa has been lauded as a compelling communicator, whose writing and speaking emphasize that accruing knowledge about God pales next to a real and intimate relationship with Jesus. Her resume includes over 30 years of church and para-church ministry leadership, including 6 years as the director of Focus on the Family's national women's ministry where she created the popular "Renewing the Heart" conferences, which were attended by almost 200,000 women, as well as a decade of touring with "Women of Faith," where she spoke to over a million women about the unconditional love of God.
