The Smell of Christmas

I was watching a documentary on Christmas in Tudor England and it explained that the people fasted throughout the 24 days of Advent. That is one of the reasons that Christmas dinner became such a big deal. They would plan and prepare the meal with great anticipation because they were starving themselves all through the month of December. The Christmas meal became a huge celebration because they could really appreciate all the food after having gone without for so long.

Advent is the smell of Christmas. It's like the whiffs you get when the oven door is opened and the turkey come out, plump and golden. Or the lid of the pot is removed to stir the savory gravy inside. It's the smell of freshly baked Christmas cookies as they cool on the rack. You haven't yet sampled the delectable tastes of Christmas dinner, but you can smell the aroma and you know it's almost time. You can almost taste it, can't you?

Advent is the smell of Christmas. We have starved without a Savior in this dark world for so very long, but each day of Advent we get a whiff of His coming. We KNOW that our deprivation will come to an end on that glorious day when He draws His first human breath. For our strivings to provide for ourselves, to satisfy our own hunger, have proved futile. All of our wrongs, every one of our failures, all of our efforts to be "good enough" have left us empty and disappointed and unfulfilled. But now, in just a few days, our season of starvation is going to culminate with a glorious feast of his LOVE and GRACE and MERCY and PEACE. And so we bear these last days of want with HOPE, keenly aware of the growling in our spiritual bellies and getting little whiffs of the complete abundance that waits at His table. Just a few more sleeps until Christmas...is your mouth watering?

Take a Five Minute Walk

Set aside just five minutes today to take a walk with God. Think about the ways in which the baby Messiah satisfies what you hunger for in life. Ask God to give you just a whiff of HIs glory and His goodness during the next few days as you prepare for the feast that is to come. And spend some time thanking him for the fact that, because of the table He has prepared, you need never hunger again.