Light has long been used as a symbol of hope amid struggle, and it is especially meaningful in climates where winter is dark and cold and grey. On this first day of Advent, we light one cande in our Advent wreath.

Sunday, November 29 вЂ“ May You Find a Light by The Brilliance So each day, you can light a candle (especially on an Advent wreath, if you have one!) while you listen and read the devotion. But there are such beautiful songs that lead us through the wonder of the Christmas story. We canвЂ™t gather and sing, at least not in the way weвЂ™re used to. We remember that Christ comes to us in many ways: in the flesh in Bethlehem over two thousand years ago every day in our hearts, comforting and transforming us in the needy and poor around us and in ChristвЂ™s future glory at the end of the age, when all the hate and pain of this world will be overturned and creation will be made new.ДЄdvent is a time when we try (and admit that we can never finish trying!) to be ready for the mystery of the incarnation, the miracle of Immanuel - God-with-us.ДЄdvent and Christmas will be quiet this year in a way they never have before. Yet every year we celebrate it again and again. We are never perfectly вЂњreadyвЂќ to receive the mystery of God born among us. The most honest answer to this question should probably be no.

Are we ready to receive a God who puts on flesh, who sees our suffering and becomes one with us, who trusts the divine into the care of a teenage girl and her fiancГ©, whose arrival in our world was not recognized by the supremely religious or the politically powerful but by humble shepherds out in dirty fields and pagan astrologers who followed a star? But Advent asks us to вЂњget readyвЂќ for Christmas in another way: to prepare ourselves for the arrival of Jesus. We know many different ways of getting ready for Christmas: picking out a tree, decorating the house, buying and wrapping gifts, making travel plans to see family. вЂњAdventвЂќ comes from a Latin word meaning вЂњarrivalвЂќ - the arrival of Christ.

The celebration of Advent counts down the four Sundays before Christmas.

Waiting in silence lyrics