Advent, Day 1

November 29

Read Isaiah 64:1-9

Pray: Almighty God, may this season be a season of fire and presence and forming for me as I become more like you.

Hear:

Well, 2020 has eaten my intentions of providing a daily devotion. But if God Eternal can come to earth as a baby, I too can start over.

Advent is a time of preparation for a celebration of Christ coming to Earth. It’s like a month-long party planning committee. What’s more, is that this party planning committee is one that focused on preparing the hearts of celebrants before the focus of our joy arrives. That focus, of course, is Jesus.

And so this blog will be a place that offers you a chance to grow in your preparedness for the coming Jesus… who has already come. It’s strange, isn’t it? Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again, and yet, in Advent, we prepare our heart for Jesus like this is a brand new thing.

In our passage today, the prophet asks God to come down and burn things up and to rework the people of Israel as if we were clay and God was the potter. The prophet, like all of us in Advent, is asking for a do-over. That all sacred thing where we say, “I have been going down one path in one such manner and I would like very much to change course.”

This year is begging for the do-over of Advent. So join me, won’t you, as we journey along the path of asking for a do-over all month long.

Respond:

How have I grown this year?

Meditation:

God, you are the potter and i am the clay.