Advent|Dec.3rd ~ Celebrating our Rescuer's Coming!

Sarah & I would like to share with you one of our "first" traditions (if we can call it a tradition yet). We decided to get an Advent calendar for our Christmas season! 1. Because I don't remember the last time I ever went through an Advent calendar 2. Because it's cool and we live in Seattle 3. Because it's biblical (thought I should add this one). We are celebrating Advent, because the word means "coming," and reminds Sarah & I of the best "coming" there ever was! The arrival of our Rescuer, Jesus Christ!

Day 3! December 3rd! The start of a new week. Sarah had to go to the dentist today, which is not always the thing you look forward to. After a sore mouth and Pho, we were able to sit down and talk and read through more of Matthew's account of Jesus' coming!

Matthew 1:23 " 'Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel' (which means, God with us)."

This was a prophecy made back in Isaiah's day, fulfilled now perfectly in Jesus! The virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus, Immanuel! What struck for Sarah and I was the meaning of this name: Immanuel, "God with us." Never before had God come down to dwell with man! God was with us in the form of Jesus, a humble baby born in a stable, mixed in with the smells of hay and animals.

No wonder a host of angels appeared to the shepherds announcing such great news! Imagine a choir of thousands singing at the top of their lungs, Glory be to God in the highest!" Wow, what a sound that would have been. A new star appeared in the skies that had never been there before, just for this occasion! All of creation stood still to 'watch' this new thing that God was doing. He was coming to be with us. Not just on that day Jesus was born, but for every day afterward! He was coming on His great Rescue mission, to bring his lost children (you and I) back to Him. To reconcile us back to our Father. He was coming after us, after His lost kids, and He wasn't going to let anything stop Him :-)

He lived and died and rose again, to rescue and redeem us from our sin, to be with us, and in us! His Comforter, the Holy Spirit is a guarantee of this. Even Jesus' final words reminds us of this, "I am with you always, to the end of the ages!" (Matt 28:20) He has come for you and I, and He promises that He will never go away. He is also coming again to take us with Him. God's mission to be with us wasn't easy, in fact it was the hardest thing anyone could have ever done! But He did it because He wanted to be with us, just like it was in the garden when God was with Adam and Eve.

Jesus' birth was the greatest thing ever! God was coming for us. He wanted us back. Immanuel... what a beautiful name for the Savior of the world!

"He made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth." Philippians 2:7-10