The word “advent” means something that comes before. Advent is a time of preparation. In this sense, it is the time to prepare our hearts for the celebration of the birth of Christ.
For many, the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is a time of shopping, cooking and parties. That’s not a problem unless you leave out the internal preparations.
If you attend worship services during this time period, you may notice a wreath with five candles on it. These candles represent aspects of the birth. While the names differ from denomination to denomination, I will use the names for the candles we use at home.
The Prophets’ Candle: Many of the Old Testament prophets spoke of the birth of Christ. Isaiah spoke of the virgin birth, the wondrous names and actions the Christ would do and about comforting God’s people. Micah wrote about the town in which the Baby would be born. We read all of these passages when we light this first candle.
The Angel’s Candle: We do this slightly out of order. The focus of this candle is on the visits Gabriel made to Zachariah and Mary. When the children were younger, we asked them why Zachariah got in trouble for questioning the angel and Mary didn’t.
The answer is because where Zachariah was…in the Holy of Holies…there is only one being that could be there. An angel. His doubt was ill founded, though very understandable. Mary, on the other hand, had a real problem understanding who she was talking to. She wasn’t in a place of religious significance and she wasn’t a priest.
The Bethlehem Candle: This candle is about the preparations and trip to Bethlehem. If you think about it, going to Bethlehem was a brave thing for Mary to do. While we know that she was protected by God and would have the Baby when she got there, she probably didn’t. It’s also not fun to ride a donkey eighty miles over sometimes difficult terrain.
The Shepherds Candle: I have the most interesting time imagining the shepherds and their reaction to the angels. When we have a Christmas pageant, the shepherds are well dressed, smell good and (since they’re usually Sunday School kids) well behaved.
Shepherds in those days were usually none of the above. They were rough, not well educated and had a very poor reputation amongst the town folks. Yet, they were the ones that God chose to make the first human pronouncement of Christ’s birth.
The Christ Candle: Many light this on Christmas Eve. We usually light it on Christmas morning. When the kids were growing up, we had a rule about presents. No gifts could be unwrapped until after breakfast and the lighting of this candle. The reading of the Christmas story was and is a part of this.
Advent is one of the most important periods in the Christian calendar. It is a time when we should prepare our hearts for the greatest Gift God has given us. His only begotten son.