Second Sunday in Advent
The Light bearing witness to the Savior who was born in Bethlehem.
“. . . she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:7
This week the action narrows down to a place – Bethlehem; to a habitat – a stable outside an inn; to a crib – a hay-filled manger; to a baby – the long awaited Christ. In preparation for the great Event, the principle characters – Mary and Joseph – are given a special light.
As we focus on the light shining on Bethlehem consider the simplicity of the setting God selected to bestow His incomparable gift – a baby: God incarnate.
Consider His choice of humble cast – the supportive characters of young Mary, Joseph the Carpenter, and the long awaited King – in the form of a helpless baby!
Simplicity. Humility. As we focus this second week of Advent on the birth of Christ, let us reflect on what is important from God’s perspective. What did the Incarnation require of Jesus? And what are the implications of His example for our daily lives?
But the Bethlehem star may lead me
To the sight of Him who freed me
From the self that I have been.
Make me meek, Lord: Thou wert lowly;
Now beginning, and always:
Now begin, on Christmas Day.
-Gerald Manley Hopkins
SCRIPTURE
Luke 2:1-7
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Second Monday in Advent
Once more, after twenty-two years, Christmas Day in Tolga – and again Christmas-like in its deepest sense with just a touch of the fondouk [inn]to make it beautiful. Common brick walls, earth floor, unglazed windows – such a tiny touch – but fitting in with the wonderful sense of being “weak with Him” which is the key note to the beginnings here. “Wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger” – that is how the world’s redemption dawned! ~ Lilias Trotter (25 December 1923)
SCRIPTURE
The Annunciation – Luke 1:26-38
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Second Tuesday in Advent
Such a day of small things still, but on God’s terms, and that is enough. Size as well as time and space count nothing with Him. ~ Lilias Trotter (1 January 1902)
SCRIPTURE
The Visitation – Luke 1:39-45
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Second Wednesday in Advent
“Faith is the link which joins our uttermost weakness to God’s almighty strength.” I came on that the other day, and it is so true. Faith that comes from the depths has a spring in it, like the water pressed down into a low narrow channel, that can rise into a fountain. ~ Lilias Trotter (12 September 1898)
SCRIPTURE
Mary’s Song – Luke 1:46-55
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Second Thursday in Advent
My room . . . at sunrise produces a camera abscura of inverted cupolas that ring the changes from rose through orange to straw color against the background of the sky. It likewise has the privilege of plastered walls – the plaster made from the crushed crystals with which the walls are built. These crystals have a word for us too, those crystals, for each of them sprang out of some atom of a growing point round which clustered crystallized this endless beauty of form. If we may but be a crystallizing point from which God can work, it matters nothing, how insignificant that starting point. ~ Lilias Trotter (8 November 1927)
SCRIPTURE
Joseph’s Story – Mathew 1:18-25
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Second Friday in Advent
The first impression of Palestine was of the strangely small scale of everything. But before nightfall one came to realize that this is an intrinsic part – that God wants to show us that nothing is great or small to Him who inhabited eternity, in its dimensions of space as well as of time. It is a pivot land – and pivots are apt to be small things in the eyes of those who do not understand their meaning. ~ Lilias Trotter (26 March 1924)
SCRIPTURE
Word Became Flesh – Luke 2:6-7; John 1:1-4; John 1:14
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Second Saturday in Advent
The same lesson is re-iterated all round by God: the simple A.B.C. lesson that where inadequacy and inefficiency on the human side are His conditions for working. “He sealeth up the hand of every man, that all men may know His work.” ~ Lilias Trotter (27 February 1904)
SCRIPTURE
Christ’s Humility: Our Example – Philippians 2:5-11
Click here to see Week One.