The Advent wind begins to stir
With sea-like sounds in our Scotch fir,
It’s dark at breakfast, dark at tea,
And in between we only see
Clouds hurrying across the sky
And rain-wet roads the wind blows dry
And branches bending to the gale
Against great skies all silver pale
The world seems travelling into space,
And travelling at a faster pace
Than in the leisured summer weather
When we and it sit out together,
For now we feel the world spin round
On some momentous journey bound -
Journey to what? to whom? to where?
The Advent bells call out ‘Prepare,
Your world is journeying to the birth
Of God made Man for us on earth.’

And how, in fact, do we prepare
The great day that waits us there -
For the twenty-fifth day of December,
The birth of Christ? For some it means
An interchange of hunting scenes
On coloured cards, And I remember
Last year I sent out twenty yards,
Laid end to end, of Christmas cards
To people that I scarcely know -
They’d sent a card to me, and so
I had to send one back. Oh dear!
Is this a form of Christmas cheer?
Or is it, which is less surprising,
My pride gone in for advertising?
The only cards that really count
Are that extremely small amount
From real friends who keep in touch
And are not rich but love us much
Some ways indeed are very odd
By which we hail the birth of God.

We raise the price of things in shops,
We give plain boxes fancy tops
And lines which traders cannot sell
Thus parcell’d go extremely well
We dole out bribes we call a present
To those to whom we must be pleasant
For business reasons. Our defence is
These bribes are charged against expenses
And bring relief in Income Tax
Enough of these unworthy cracks!
‘The time draws near the birth of Christ’.
A present that cannot be priced
Given two thousand years ago
Yet if God had not given so
He still would be a distant stranger
And not the Baby in the manger.

W.H.Chellis is a Reformed pastor who believes, strongly, in Santa Claus. I’m not too familiar with “the deep truths of Faerie” but I like what I see in these lecture notes (I’d love to hear the lecture itself).

Compare it with this soulless piece on why parents should not let their children believe in Santa Claus and you may see, as I did, that belief in Santa has much to commend it.

Happy St. Nicholas Day (Dec. 6)

William Cwirla gives the basics of Advent at home. Excellent basic list to share with the heathen

A collection of Advent resources from, of all places, USA Today.

Father Cantalemessa’s First Advent Sermon. He is the preacher to the papal household, and is an excellent preacher.

Christ the King Presbyterian Church has a fine advent devotional for download.

First Things blog has a post on one of the greatest of Advent hymns: Lo, He Comes With Clouds Descending.

Michael asked a question that’s really easy for me to answer. “Are You Good At Waiting?” No, I’m not. In fact, on the subject of Advent, I’m chief of hypocrites.

As an adult convert from fundamentalism to mainstream evangelicalism, Advent should be — and is — in my wheelhouse. I’m interested in setting aside a month to wait expectantly on Jesus. I have books, I talk about it, write articles about it, and then the first Sunday of Advent comes and goes and.. nothing. 

Oh, I have excuses, even reasons. I tell myself that Advent is about expectation and intentionality, thoughtfulness, not bondage. Still, somehow I feel like I’ve failed. I’m a day behind celebrating the Christian new year! If I were really intentional, after all, would I be a day behind? Should I have spoken at last night’s service about Advent, when I had not even sat down with my own family?

Easily I could wrap myself in rules and regulations, in guilt and recrimination. Instead, I lean wholely on Christ. I confessed to my church family that I had let time run away and failed to begin celebration. I know that Christ’s return is not contingent on my attitude or expectation. Christ has coming, will come, and I am His.

Good at waiting? Hardly. My wife calls me patient because I don’t get frustrated at things, but I do get frustrated at myself, or maybe at God. This sanctification stuff takes too long, and I make the same stupid mistakes and here it is December again already and we’re a candle short, but maybe we can run to the store and… no, we wait. Hurrying to being Advent might be missing the point even more than being a day late. 

We wait, expectantly, impatiently, and imperfectly, and we look forward to a time when Christ shall return.

The Rabbit Room is spending the next few weeks focusing on Advent, with a “Virtual Advent Wreath” post each week.  The posts so far:

• The Advent Wreath and How to Make One
• Living Between Two Advents
• Virtual Advent Wreath, Week 1: The Silence of the Priest