One of the things I look forward to during Christmas is dusting off the tried-and-true Advent books in my library and then adding a few new ones to my collection. Though my time for reading was limited more than usual this year, I managed to get through two small works and a few really good blog posts. For your reading pleasure, I’ve posted a few highlights below. Let these short snippets minister to your heart as together we make room for Jesus arrival.
“For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.”—Charles Dickens
“The Christmas story clearly shows that the hope of the universe is a person. Hope was what the angels sang about. Hope lay in the manger. Hope caused Mary to wonder in her heart. It was hope that the shepherds came to worship. Hope was presented with gifts from the Magi who had traveled so far. The Advent story is a hope story because it chronicles the coming to earth of the One who is hope, Jesus.”—Paul David Tripp
“God is now on earth, and man in heaven; on every side all things commingle.”—St. John Chrysostom
“The whole life of Christ was a continual passion; others die martyrs, but Christ was born a martyr. He found a Golgotha even in Bethlehem, where he was born; for, to his tenderness then, the straws were almost as sharp as the thorns after; and the manger as uneasy at first, as his cross at last. His birth and his death were but one continual act, and his Christmas Day and his Good Friday are but the evening and morning of one and the same day.”—John Donne
“Now, newborn,
In wide-eyed wonder,
He gazes up at creation.
His hand that hurled the world
Holds tight his mother’s finger.
Holy light, spills across her face
And she weeps,
Silent wondering tears
To know she holds the one
Who has so long held her.”—Joan Rae Mills