Advent Devotion – Love
During this Advent season, as we prepare our hearts for the birth of Jesus, I can’t help but think back to the anticipation and excitement that surrounded my every thought as Jacob and I prepared for our Christian to arrive just a little over a year ago. With each day, as we inched closer and closer to his arrival, I kept thinking thoughts, such as, “What will he look like? What will he be like? What will it feel like to be a mother?”
I remember that feeling of anticipation as a new parent; but then, I think of Mary, and the anticipation she must have felt – not only as a new parent, but as the mother of the One who would come to save us all.
1 John 4:7-9 says, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”
This season is such a precious time, because it reminds us all of the ever present and insurmountable love of God. We are blessed to celebrate and remember the birth of love incarnated. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Just like the joy that accompanies the birth of a new baby, may our spirits be renewed with love and hope. May we find peace when the world around us seems dim. And above all, may we seek to love God, and love our brothers and sisters, in this season and the next.
Prayer: Dear God, we pray for a Merry Christmas for all, and for Your love and blessings will be with everyone, now and always!
-Written by Kayla Eppel