Feeling ADVENTurous?

The season of Advent is here! WOO HOO! YEE HAW! BOOYA!

Wait a tic....what does that even mean? Isn't it just the "holiday season?" And isn't "holiday season" just a countdown of shopping days before Christmas?

To many Americans this would seem to be the reality, that Christmas has become something of a commercialized sport in which the main event is spending money on a lot of things that everyone wants but no body needs so that on Christmas morning you get to see them tear through massive amounts of green and red wrapping paper and feel good about yourself because you were the "giver" this year. And everyone loves a cheerful giver.

But what about God? What about the birth of his son Jesus?! Packed way back behind tinsel and presents and elves and eggnog we have placed the nativity scene, arguably one of the most iconic symbols of our Christian faith today. We have placed family and friends before the real reason for the season.

Don't get me wrong, the holidays are a great time to connect with family and friends. It's sharing this momentous occasion with the ones we love that make Christmas' past, present and future so memorable. But somehow the birth of Christ seems to take a back seat to all of this.

Which brings me to my point about Advent. For an entire month before Christmas we gather together each week in worship to prepare for this day of rejoicing. Advent is a period of waiting, of anticipation and a time of preparation for the coming of the most important figure in the Christian world.

Yet our minds are usually elsewhere 12 days before Christmas. The commercialism of Christmas has brought us to a familiar place in our history. I'm reminded of the early Israelites who followed Moses through the desert. They were constantly turning from God to worship other things, much like the material things we seemingly worship around our Christmas trees.

"Thank you God for this big trampoline and this iPod touch and this Xbox360 and this life-sized pony and this cotton candy machine and this giant hydraulic pogo stick. This has been the best Christmas ever!"

God gave us the greatest gift anyone could ever give; salvation from an eternity somewhere very hot and uncomfortable...through his son Jesus Christ. The season of Advent is a time to think about that. To pray about that. To give thanks to God for that.