Oh come, let us adore Him. We each have a Christmas invitation to praise and celebrate the birth of our King and Savior. Celebrating Advent is your invitation to come.
With each passing year, something new always sticks out to me during the Christmas season. A specific verse in the bible becomes more focused for the season, or a particular song captures the essence of Christmas and I have it on repeat throughout the holidays – never able to get enough of it.
Michael W. Smith’s song Anthem for Christmas held my attention last year (and the previous 10 years!) Have you ever heard this song? It is one of my top three favorite Christmas songs – along with Oh Holy Night and Hallelujah Christmas.
This year, my attention keeps going back to the invitation to come and worship by celebrating Advent and the words, “Oh Come Let Us Adore Him”.
Celebrating Advent: A Christmas Invitation to Worship
Oh come, let us adore Him.
I’ve heard this song my entire life yet this is the first year I hear a beckoning call of worship every time I hear or see these words. Do you hear it, too?
Oh come, let us adore Him.
Come, let us welcome Emmanuel, God with us. Come, let us humble ourselves before him.
Fill up with wonder and anticipation. Fill up with the joy and peace of the Christ child.
Oh come, let us worship Him.
Come. That’s the word that whispers to us all throughout this season when we pause and listen. Come.
It’s hard to hear with all the noise of this big and loud, fast and chaotic world.
Even still, we’re surrounded and engulfed by the invitation to come even in the chaos.
It’s always there. Always. Patiently waiting to be heard, captured, and noticed.
A Christmas invitation to come.
Come to prepare. To praise. To worship.
Imagine my delight when I discovered the makings of Advent this past year.
Celebrating Advent: A Christmas Invitation to Come
Why do we celebrate advent?
Advent is derived from the Latin and means “coming” or “to come.” Of course. How have I missed this?
As a family, we’ve always had an Advent calendar to countdown to Christmas and to build our anticipation for celebrating Christ’s birth. I love building and growing the excitement over Jesus’ birth each year.
We read parts of Isaiah and Luke or devotionals leading up to Christmas.
The last two years we’ve used Ann Voscamp’s The Greatest Gift advent tree. It is a beautiful pop-up tree that comes with a built-in book of daily devotions and a Christmas ornament to put on the tree. The kids love it. We all do!
Every day the devotional points us back to the real meaning and purpose for celebrating Christmas. I love decorating the little tree with twinkle lights and watching the ornaments cover the tree as we approach Christmas.
It’s just been in the last few years that the churches we’ve been a part of have used an Advent wreath and candles so this for is rather new to me.
Celebrating Advent ~ The Makings of Advent
What are ways to celebrate advent?
Does your church have families light the Advent candles each week?
The season of Advent lasts for four Sundays leading up to Christmas.
An evergreen wreath holds four candles which are lit each Sunday. The evergreens symbolize everlasting life. The circle reminds us of God’s unending love along with the eternal life He makes possible.
In addition to the wreath, sometimes additional decorations are added like the holly and berries. The redness of the berries points ahead to Jesus’ sacrifice and death. And pinecones are also sometimes used to symbolize the new life that Jesus brings through His resurrection.
A candle is lit on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, and another candle is lit each subsequent Sunday.
Each candle represents hope, faith, joy, and peace.
The fifth and final candle, which is placed in the center, is white. It represents the life of Christ and the white symbolizes our sinless, pure Savior.
Finally, the candles shine brightly to symbolize and remind us that Jesus came as Light into our dark world.
I just can’t get enough of this. In all things, it shouts of the beauty and grace of Jesus. He entered our broken world, willingly leaving Heaven behind, to walk among us and rescue us. Even now, He’s working to restore light, peace, and life.
Celebrating Advent: Come
Come. Partake in this invitation to worship. Pause and listen for it. It’s whispering. Inviting. Extending.
Just as you are, come.
Even as I type this, I look up above my mantle and see what I’ve never recognized before other than pretty, simple Christmas decorations.
My evergreen wreath with red berries and pinecones. And my white candle.
The invitation to come.
It’s your invitation, too.
It’s all around us. We just have to pause a moment to accept the invitation.
Come and worship our Savior.
Oh come, let us adore Him.
Call to Action:
Come and adore Him today.
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