Advent Has a Purpose (Candle Lighting isn’t It)
Everyone has a way of getting ready for Christmas. This hardly needs unpacking; but since you’re here and because we’re all, in fact, getting ready for Christmas (four weeks away), it would be imprudent not to.
Christmas is such a cultural phenomenon that it would simply be too much to turn up to December 25 ready for action. Can you imagine if we treated it like Labor Day? Think about it. How bizarre would it be if we remembered the day before that it was Christmas and showed up on someone’s doorstep ready to go with sweaters on and a few gifts under our arms for the lucky few we remembered to shop for? It just doesn’t work. Christmas has a gravitational pull that’s bigger than we are.
We’re used to this in other areas of life too, spaces that need the buildup and are, in some ways, bigger than the thing itself. We don’t get to …………