Part 1
“O come, O come, Emmanuel. And ransom captive Israel.
That mourns in lonely exile here. Until the Son of God appear.”
Blaise Pascal said “There is a God shaped hole in each of us.”
Israel longed for a Savior. Before Christ came into your life, you did too.
You just didn’t know it.
Advent is traditionally a time people reflect on the birth of Christ.
The Past, Present and the Future.
Our personal Advent journey is made up of similar parts.
As was Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol”
It’s a lovely Christmas story (if you celebrate Christmas). It’s also a story of pain, loss, brokenness, redemption. And counting your blessings.
Is. 9:2 “People walking in darkness have seen a great light.”
Israel, Ebenezer, you and I were people that did walk in darkness. Unaware that there is a Light. We didn’t care or know that we had a need for it.
When we first meet Ebenezer Scrooge it is Christmas Eve, he is at his accounting office. He is an ornery, cold-hearted, uncaring soul. He doesn’t need anyone or anything. He has scolded his clerk for using too much coal, his nephew for actually being happy, and denied some charity workers seeking a donation with a comment about if there are not enough work houses for the poor, then something should be done to decrease the surplus population.
While he is rich he is very poor indeed.
Preparing the Way
But just as in Old Testament Israel’s time, God had a plan to prepare them for the coming Messiah.
He used the prophets to foretell. He used people like Simeon, Anna, John the Baptist.
In the case of Ebenezer Scrooge, Dicken’s had planned for his long dead partner Jacob Marley to visit him that evening after he gets home.
He shows up in chains and weights much too heavy to bear. But that is his task. He is warning Scrooge that his fate will be the same if he doesn’t mend his ways. Scrooge protests saying that Jacob was an excellent business man.
Marley counters with a lament about never seeing the needs of others. Always turning his eyes away from them.
In your own Advent Journey, in your life, God had a plan long before you were born.
God’s plan was to prepare the way for you to hear the message of the Gospel, included perhaps Grandparents and parents, even if you were theoretically born into the Faith, you still have to own it at some point.
God Divinely orchestrated people, events and circumstances to prepare our hearts and minds to receive the message of the Gospel. To feed and grow the hunger and longing that is within us.
Take some time to think about who or what prepared the ground of your heart for the Seeds of the Gospel?
Tune in Thursday for Your Advent Journey- Pt. 2 “Past”
