The Third Week of Advent

GOD’S GIFT TO US

Isn’t it amazing how quickly things become hackneyed?  Whether it’s fashion — skirts long or short, toes round or pointed — celebrities who come and go in popularity, hobbies we take up that begin to bore us, or relationships we out grow. Things we couldn’t live without — the boat, the rifle, the car, the house, the job — soon lose their newness and appeal and we are ready for something different, more exciting and challenging. Eventually, most of our interests become so trite, so… so… last week.

When the children of Israel were starving, and I mean starving in the wilderness, God gave them manna, fresh every morning, a miracle just for them. They were so grateful for this new versatile food. But before long they grew tired of the same old thing day after day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They cried that they longed for a change in diet. Manna, God’s special miracle for his children, had become so last week.

In his indescribable love, God gave us the gift of his Son. God loved the world so much — he loved me and you so much — that he gave his son.

This is almost too great to comprehend. How could I ever feel blasé about it? How could I ever tire of the story of his birth, told in narrative and song, celebrated with friends and family in places decorated with lights and symbols of the nativity?

The story of how Christ came to live among us never grows cliché. The gift God gave us is experienced fresh and new every year when this season arrives, every week as we worship together, every day, every moment we choose to bask in the great love God has for us.