It was the great wisdom of our early church fathers to set aside the four weeks before Christmas to prepare our celebration of Jesus’ birth in the season we call Advent. The word advent means “arrival” or “coming” and our forebears in faith understood that every Christmas holds the wondrous possibility of Jesus being born again. Born in our lives, and born in our world.
We celebrate this time by buying gifts for those we love, but the real gift is to give of ourselves. We can do that if we are open to the Holy Spirit. When we become who God wants us to be, we’re no longer sending out gifts. We are the gift that is sent to deliver the hope of Christmas.
“As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them….”
–John 17:18