THE PURPOSE OF OUR CELEBRATION AND MEDITATIONS

We are meditating on the conception of Christ during the season of Advent.

I celebrate Advent because of the conception of Christ that I think happened on December 25th.

If you wish to know more about those thoughts you may find them here:  HOW GOD MAKES ALL THINGS NEW – PIECES OF THE PUZZLE – IN RELATION TO THE DATE OF CHRISTMAS

There are four candles on the outside of the advent wreath, and one candle is lit each Sabbath. This week we will light the second candle.

(If you missed the meditations for lighting the first candle; you may find it here:  https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/the-first-sabbath-of-advent-a-meditation-on-waiting-seasons/

FOUR THOUSAND YEARS WITHOUT MESSIAH

Each candle represents one thousand years, with a total of four thousand years all together from the creation of Adam until the time of the conception of Christ.

The first candle, the waiting candle represents our waiting on Messiah to arrive in our lives.  We could compare this time of waiting on the deliverance of Christ to arrive in the world (the time that it took Mary to deliver in labor) to the time that the Israelites were waiting in the bondage of slavery in Egypt.  They were waiting and hoping that God would deliver them.  It must have seemed like forever as they waited.  I’m sure it seemed that way to Mary as she felt the Christ child growing inside her tummy.

The second candle represents our prayers, penance and sacrifice on our journey toward knowing more of God.

These are things we all must be DOING in order to get prepared for God to be MORE in our lives.

If you look at the time in the wilderness as many of us have been doing in the COME AS A CHILD WEEKLY BIBLE STUDY which is now studying the book of Exodus, you begin to see how God prepared the people’s hearts for how to become the great nation God wanted them to be.  He taught them (through Moses and the Levitical priesthood and the tabernacle) how to worship by praying, turning from wrong ways and repenting and offering proper sacrifices at the altar.

When we light the third candle (on our next Sabbath) we should be inside a time after remembering the times of waiting, prayer, penance and sacrifice; we will arrive at a place of joy.

We are not there yet; because before we can get to that place of transformation, joy and peace, we must allow God to prepare our hearts.

We must do the work of believing, repenting, turning, changing and obeying.

These things are the things that allow God to bring transformation into our lives.

We must begin to step into the True Light of Christ.

ARRIVING AT A TIME OF CHANGE AFTER  LEAVING A LIFE IN DARKNESS

For thousands of years there was no light.

People lived in darkness without God’s Holy Spirit and the sacrifice of Christ to save them from their sins.

With the lighting of the first candle we began to meditate on the transformation that comes from hope.  The first light is the hope of the transformation that Emmanuel will bring to us.

With the lighting of the second candle we begin to meditate on the transformations that come from being obedient to God.  We not only hope for these things we have been waiting on; we begin to dwell on them and to anticipate how we can arrive at our destination with them.

The progressive lighting of the candles first represents the anticipation and hope in the first coming and the anticipation and hope for the second coming return of Christ.

He is coming back to us; and He will save us from a world of darkness and despair.

Christ will bring the light.  He is the light of the world.

We are all still waiting together and anticipating the light that only He can bring.

THE SECOND CANDLE TELLS US MORE ABOUT THE JOURNEY THAN THE DESTINATION

Sometimes though, life seems to be as much about the journey as the arriving.

Often what matters in the end is what we do in-between the constant distractions.

You can easily see how God worked that out with The People of Israel in the wilderness.  The people who started that journey from Egypt were not the same people as they approached Canaan.  They had changed.  God gave them the ways that would bring transformation into their lives.  It is this transformation that makes a nation go from slavery to mighty and great.

While you are in this time; you do not always understand the significance of living through it.

We can see all the journeys of the bible that have not seemed significant until they were over and the people of God were looking back at all the things God taught them as they traveled toward their destinations.

I think of Abraham and Sarah.  The same people who left Abraham’s homeland and traveled to where ever God lead them were changed by the time they reached their destination.

I think of Noah stepping on the ark.  The man who stepped inside and dwelled with the stinky animals as the great boat tossed and weathered the storms was not the same man who stepped out into a clean new world and saw the rainbow that proclaimed the surety of God’s everlasting promises toward mankind.

We are all on a journey right now as we travel through life.

Our destination is God’s Holy Kingdom of Heaven, but we are not there yet.  We are still on our way.  Not one of us has arrived yet.   All the way God is teaching us, changing us, transforming us into the destiny that He desires for our lives.  Christ coming to live among us made this possible.

Without Christ – Emmanuel – God with us – nothing would have been possible.  Our waiting and our hoping would have been in vain.

These are the places where we must live out the messages we hear with each lighting of the Advent candles.

We must always be seeking for more light.

We must always be seeking the face of God; just as Mary looked forward to seeing the face of her new-born child during her time of  pregnancy.  She was waiting and hoping and seeking to know more of this miraculous child she carried within her body.

We must be looking forward with hope and doing things in our daily lives that anticipate the second coming of Christ into our world.

THE DESTINATION IS CHRIST

The large candle in the middle, the one that is elevated, represents the fullness of Christ to us.

We must always be walking toward that fullness of Christ during the days of our lives.

This is the goal of walking in the light of Christ.  The closer we get the more light we see.

Each light adds more illumination into our paths.

We think of that old Psalm of David that says:    “He leads me in the path of righteousness; He restores my soul.”  Each new lighting of the candles bring us further down the path of light that Christ sheds our way.  Each time we ponder these wondrous events of the conception of Christ, our meditations and thoughts take us into a new place of more and more light.

The elevated candle in the center is the candle which is lighted last on the day many believe that Christ was conceived, (December 25th.)  This candle sheds the most light.  With the other candles lit and then this one; we are finally able to see!

The candle that sheds the most light, that represents Christ is placed in the center because Christ should always have the place of the center of our daily lives.

It is also elevated above the others because He should always be given the highest place of elevation, honor and worship in our lives.  The light and message of Christ should always  be above everything else that we do, say or think.

When we keep Christ as the center of our universe; He becomes the compass of our lives.

Eventually there comes the time of the end of the pregnancy when the baby is born. This is what we celebrated in the Fall of the year at The Feast of Tabernacles.  At Christmas we are celebrating first the conception; then the life of the three-month old child named Jesus who will grow into a man who is The Son of God, who will live and die and resurrect again so that we can live forever.  This represents a cycle that shows a time-period of waiting and we can see the amazing progress of the conception, of the growing of the child as He dwells with us in the first transformation called pregnancy when He first entered the world of mankind and came to the earth to be with us; then the next transformation of being born, of taking breath into His lungs and growing into a healthy three-month old baby.  Life with God is about constant growth and constant transformation.  The Son of God went through this process just as we do.  Though He was God He came to be like us so that He could save us.

Each year as we place the figures of Joseph, Mary and Jesus out in our sukkah; we also bring the candle that represents Christ.  We light this candle again in celebration of Him being born as The Light of the World, and we display the Mother and Child again at Christmas representing the three-month old child that Jesus would have become by that date.

So much transformation!

Many, many miracles from God over and over again.

MARY KNEW GOD

By the end of Advent when we come to the last candle in the center of the wreath; we are to a place of really KNOWING that Christ has arrived and become that baby growing into the Savior of the World.

As we are lighting the candle in the Advent wreath during the Christmas season though, in terms of the calendar, by now the little child is already three months old!

This is where we are celebrating a little like the wise men who came to see the Christ Child at a time when he was a little older; yet still a child and we proclaim:  He is here!

It is a great miracle, this conception, this birth, this child that will become a man/God; who will bring our souls through to eternal life.

We celebrate that He is living and growing among us and showing us every day how to live like Him.

The waiting starts at the Conception; the moment He was given life as a human that represented God living among us.

Now He whispers to us that the waiting is over.

He is with us and He will always be with us.

With the conception of Christ (and the birth of Christ) the thing the whole world held their breath about has now transpired, and the light in the center of the wreath shines out bigger and brighter than ever.

We welcome Christ into the center of our homes.

We focus our daily adoration upon Him as our Savior; as the groom that is one day coming for us a second time.

We must always be seeking His will in our lives. We must begin to prepare ourselves for the time of the great wedding feast in Heaven when God will bless our holy union forever.

WE PREPARE NOW BECAUSE WE KNOW THE END OF THE STORY

But why are we talking so much about the last candle when we are only lighting the second candle?

All of the things about the last candle are why the second candle reminds us to prepare.

We will eventually reach the last candle and Christ will be King.

We must make way for Him and prepare our hearts to receive Him joyfully into our lives forever.

Every moment we are constantly watching, waiting and seeking Him.

When will He arrive?

Come Lord Jesus Come!

Even this moment – we are waiting and watching the skies with hope.

All of our hearts are saying “Come quickly Lord Jesus!”