It's Advent Season!

What do you think of when someone mentions the word "Advent"? Did you grow up observing Advent? Not everyone did, and that's okay! If you haven't heard of it before, it's a meaningful tradition that prepares our hearts for the arrival of Christmas. Today's episode captures the significance of Advent and how its not only the anticipation of Jesus' birth, but also for His return to the world. We're so happy to have you at the Table today and hope y'all love this episode as much as we did!

https://christian.net/special-themes/what-do-the-5-candles-of-advent-represent/

https://www.christianity.com/wiki/holidays/why-are-the-advent-candle-color-purple-pink-and-white.html

https://christianity.com/wiki/holidays/advent-wreath-meaning-of-advent-candles.html

https://bibleproject.com/guides/advent/#resources

J.I.Packer "Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as the incarnation."

Transcript

juli-_1_11-19-2024_124235: 0:02

Hey y'all, welcome back to My Tennessee Table. We are so happy you're here. So much is probably happening in your week and we recognize that. We're so grateful that you decided to spend some time with us today. Lelie, you have had quite a week. I want to hear about it. Yeah, I went to New York City over the weekend. my husband and I, Eric, we try to get away once a year. More, more, more. If we can. Yeah. But we really make an effort to get away once a year just to reconnect, have time together. And I'll tell you this, we were in New York City and we saw three Broadway shows, so I remember, so fun. It was really fun. But about, I don't remember if it was after the first show we saw, or the second show we saw, but I had this moment where I was like reminded and like taken back to my twenties when I was like at Auburn, sitting in a coffee shop just. Prayer journaling and reading my Bible and drinking some coffee and praying for my husband. And here's what I prayed for. I was like, Lord, I don't know how this works. Like if I can ask you for these things of my spouse, but God, I just would really love it if I had a husband that loved musicals and music and the arts. Arts as much as I do, but God, I also need a guy who's going to be like a man, you know, like can throw the football and play basketball with the kids and want to watch college football on Saturday. And so I was like, Lord, I don't know if that guy exists out there, but I would just love to marry a guy like that. And here I was, you know, 20 something years later in New York city with my husband, who was equally as excited to see all these shows as I was. And yet But it's very much a man like he loves college football probably more now. Yeah. Yeah. More than probably. I wish that he did. Honestly. So anyway, it was just good to be reminded of that and to have fun with him and just be like, you are, you are exactly what I prayed for all those years ago. I'm so glad. Yes. So we're in New York City and it was beautiful and weather was good. You said wonderful weather. It was. It was. It's perfect. Oh my gosh. It's perfect. Yeah. It's a blue sky in your picture. Every day. Oh my gosh. And okay, the photos, which I was waiting for y'all, I knew that they're taking time away time out. They both have huge schedules. They're just busy people. And so I thought, okay, she's not going to probably post a bunch of stuff, but I can't wait till she does. Because I was looking for like restaurants and pictures of the city and anyways, so they came and then yeah. The Christmas has happened. It has, it has happened. It has New York city. It has the tree was there. They've got it covered up because they're decorating it right now. The Rockefeller center tree, they've got the scaffolding all around it, but the ice skating rink was there and, all the Christmas village were set up and the Christmas trees were everywhere and there was sparkly and everything was lit up and lights and red and green and just all things Christmas. It was just. I don't know. Glittery and fun. It was beautiful. Now, you're a photographer, so she takes great pictures, anyhow, but the photos, I mean, they look like magazine covers or digital covers. I don't know. What do you do nowadays? I mean, I get Garden and Gun. That's a magazine. But anyways, yes, the trees and the storefronts and the garland it was just beautiful. And I thought, Oh my gosh, I, I know we've tried to hold back Christmas. Not because we don't love it, but we do love it, but we want to embrace the season that we're in right now. but it just brought Christmas to the forefront of my mind and what, what that means, just a celebration of Jesus birth and, and what that means. just the ushering in of everything, hopeful and redemptive and salvific, and it's such a big, it's such a big monumental holiday. And so oftentimes during this season, we talk about God with us because in the scripture, It says she will name her son Emanuel, or they will call him Emanuel. That's in Isaiah, I believe. And that means God with us. We see that in the Old Testament prophecy. We also see it in the Gospels, too. And then in John, it talks about how he became flesh and took up Residents with us and what a gift that we get to have God among us and, dwell with us and, experience all that we've experienced. And, have a high priest that's sympathetic towards us. I came across a quote this week, J. I. Packer, and he was a theologian and author and other accolades to his name, but he had said nothing in fiction is so fantastic as the incarnation. And I just had to think about it for a minute. I thought, Oh my gosh, of every great story of every historic event There's nothing that matches what it means that God came in the flesh and dwelt among us. And so this Christmas time, we often have tradition and rituals that we do. And, sometimes we observe advent. This is often called the advent season. Yeah. So that may be like a word that you never heard before. I don't know. Sometimes it is observed in churches, sometimes not. And so what's your experience? if I say Edmonton, what are your memories? What do you think of, Did y'all, did your church do that growing up? You know, I grew up in a Baptist church and yes, we did observe, Advent. there was, you know, lots of scripture readings, and Advent, it, it means the arrival or the coming. Specifically, Webster says the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event. So, I mean, Jesus. Like, it's It's a picture should just be there. Yes. And as, as Julie and I were talking about advent and what does that mean? And what does it mean to us? I thought, what is the heart behind advent? Like what, why do we do the things that we do and what is it? And it's, it's really, it's the anticipation of Christ's second coming. And I was thinking about the word anticipation and what does that mean to me? And I thought about, so our family goes on a beach vacation every year. All of us usually go, I'm one of four kids and we rent a beach house and it's 50 million cousins and siblings and all the fun, all the people, but my mom and I will start talking about this trip months before we go, we are buying snacks. We are out at target getting the new beach towels and all the things. And it's funny cause we, we love the week at the beach, but we have said every year we say this. The anticipation is really the best part because we're just looking forward to it. We're talking, what are we going to have Sunday night? What are we going to have Monday night for dinner? Who's going to be in charge of this? Who's going to be in charge of that? And it's the, it's the anticipation leading up to that event. That's the best part. And I would say advent, the best part is going to be Jesus coming back. So the anticipation is going to be amazing, but then the actual event is going to be even better than that. And so it just, it makes me think of. Anticipation, just waiting, excited, waiting, really. And Advent, it's the four weeks leading up to Christmas. So there's four Sundays and growing up our church, we did the Advent wreath with the candles. And I remember as a kid having to go up and read the scripture. Did you guys do? Yes. Well, As a child, our church didn't observe it either that or I was not paying attention. I'm not sure. Maybe they did. I wasn't observant. I don't know. I was probably in Sunday school, so I didn't go to big service right till I was older. So when I was older, I know it didn't happen. Yeah. That I remember now when I was married, it happened. And that wreath really, Just to back up a second is just the anticipation of Christ's birth, right? Yeah, we Live between two advent. So there's the advent season that christ came and we while we weren't living during that time We're living in that time. Yeah his first coming but we're expected of the second advent of his second coming And so, the wreath has some candles and you light it and there's usually scriptures that are read and So we did that as an adult. So my kids got to do it. Yeah You I didn't do it. And then, the other churches, I have been a part of as an adult did it too. but I do have a funny story and I, and if, and if faith, my daughter faith is ever on a podcast, she absolutely will remember the admin. Well, I feel like we talk about faith all the time on the podcast. We need to have her on. We do. Anyways, so it was our turn. Now listen, y'all, this was, this was, I really took this as an honor that they would ask your family. Yeah. You go up in front of the church, the wreath is there, there's five candles, different colors. They tell you which one you're supposed to light. They relight the one from last week. If you're post first week, they give you your scripture, you know, you're coming up at this time. Anyways. I was prepared. I had the scripture printed out. Okay. I don't know what was happening in life, but I didn't tell my children and so and we're all reading like everyone has a job to do, including Lance, my husband. So we're on our big green suburban going to church and I'm like, Hey, y'all, we're sitting in the front row and we're doing the advent reading and they're old enough at this point to be like, excuse me, we're doing what I'm sorry. That's not going to work for me. And, I said, no, we got to do it. It's too late. And so they're probably like, My oldest was maybe middle school, maybe Faith might have been in 5th or 6th grade. my paper that I printed off the scripture, I'm just ripping chunks. So I'm like, you read this one, you read this chunk, you read this one. And I'm having them, you know, look it over in the back seat while we pull into the parking lot. This is not my most stellar mother moment. But they did it, so we get in the front row. I don't know why Faith didn't mention it until we're in the front row. But she leaned over and her portion of scripture said, and the Virgin will conceive. Hmm. Well, that horrified her. Oh yeah. So she, to say the word. Yeah. So she leaned over the front row to look down at me and she said, And I was like, Oh, yes, you are reading it. I don't know why I didn't just like swap scriptures, like here, Austin, read this fake, you know, but I didn't, I just stuck to my guns. I was probably trying not to make a big scene. So I was like, no, you're reading it. So she leans back and then a few minutes later she leans forward and she looks at me and she goes, for that, I'm putting you in an old folks home. I go, Oh my gosh, that's severe. Wow. You're not going to take care of me. I'm going to put you in an old folks home. Now she's a nurse, so surprise, she's going to be taking care of me in her home when I'm older. So my kids did do the lighting of the wreath and the candles. I can't say that they maybe would really remember now, but I'll That mentor, what is it about? They definitely know it's about the Christmas season anticipation of, Jesus's birth. But, are you okay if I just tell a little bit about the candles, like the theme, so each week of Advent, the four weeks, okay, this is a little confusing cause there's five candles, but there's. Four weeks. there's five candles because the fifth one is lit on Christmas. Yeah. So in case you didn't know that, and so each candle represents, or carries along with a spiritual theme or aspect of preparation for the birth of Jesus on Christmas. So the first candle is the hope candle is what they call it or the prophecy candle. And this one's purple and it really, brings times of, Repentance or fasting, just spiritual preparation. Also, purple means royalty and king. And so the King of Kings is coming. We're thinking of that as an anticipation of the season. The next candle, the second candle, which would be lit the second Sunday of Advent is also purple and it's called the Bethlehem candle. And I don't think I remembered that actually. Um, and that is a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy that the Messiah is coming. We see that in Isaiah. and also that we find, reconciliation and peace with the Lord because it's called the peace candle or the Bethlehem candle. the third one, we get to change it up a little bit. And this one's pink. And it represents joy and so we see this shift away from kind of repentance and contemplation in the first two weeks of Advent and we move into this time of celebration of happiness and excitement because we are going to receive the long awaited Messiah and then the fourth candle. And is love and it's purple and we like that on the fourth week and highlights God's love for humanity. Also, just our call to love one another. There are a lot of love one another scriptures and scripture. So, that's our call for ourself and then the fifth one and the final one which it will be lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day is white and that is him coming as a light of the world. we'd like that was often called the Christ candle and it's in the center of the wreath, because of his preeminence and just a reminder of the hope and the promise that you, and we, we all receive because Christ came into the world. So that's like a quick little snapshot of what the candles represent. I think the important part is that each week has, again, has a spiritual theme or aspect that prepares us, like you said, to remember his birth during the holiday season. So that hope, peace, joy, love, and then the fifth one, Christ, those are themes for the week. So, yeah. Okay. Well, that was, a quick overview of the meanings and the significance of Advent. I was thinking about just myself personally through the season of Advent and like how to keep myself busy. Like my mind focused on the reason and the different things that just would help me. And a lot of times I'll have a book that I'm following, um, that I'm reading through. Like I have Paul David Tripp's book. it's called, Oh, come, let us adore him. And it's a really good advent reading and it takes you through the whole month of December. And I've also used and Voskamp's book. It's a kind of a family devotional. That's good. It's a really. It's really pretty. I'm sure it is. By the way. so you can have it sitting out on your coffee table and it's, it, which is probably helpful at least for me, if it's sitting on my coffee table, I will actually remember to do it. My Bible is always out. Yeah. Because then I'm like, Oh, there it is. So I think being intentional in this season is super important. another thing that I've been doing, and this is, I don't even know if this is on topic or off topic, but at night I. I tend to like to watch a show and so I've been putting on The Chosen, have you watched The Chosen? Someone was just talking about this last week. Yeah, I've just been Yes, I have not watched it yet. Oh, Julie. I know, I know. That's the response everybody gives me when I say I haven't seen it. It's the fourth season, isn't it? Yes. Has the fourth season come out? I don't know. I'm only on season three, but I, it's beautiful. It like, usually I end up crying by the end of the episode. I need to, I just slips my brain and I just have not done it. And, and honestly, okay. This is off topic. Maybe, maybe not. It's per topic for the chosen. Okay. I'm going to be honest. This is like my stop. This is why I haven't done it yet. I have a hard time. Okay. Coloring in scripture. Yeah, and I'm not saying they please hear me. Yeah. I know they research. This is not something that was the project They took lightly. I'm not saying that they know more of the cultural nuances and context than I would ever know And so in in my brain, I have this picture Mm hmm of what happened and what the word so anyways, that's me. I just kind of like I I mean, I think You If you're a Christ follower and you have read scripture, then you'll, I don't know, I don't know that I see a whole lot of different, but you'll have like a pause in your spirit if there's something that's off, but I just think. It's almost just given me this, I don't know, like personification of Jesus, which this person who he's an actor, he's not perfect, he's not Jesus, but anyway, it just, it reminds me like of, of how Jesus really would have been, or was, or is. In flesh. In flesh. As a person. Thank you. In flesh. Yes. Walking around. Walking around. It's just been a really like good thing for me to kind of center. My heart at night, especially in, in this Advent season, heading into just the birth of Jesus, just remembering like, Oh, he was here. He was in flesh and he was dwelt among us and he loved us. And he loved the children and he loved the people and his way and his. Just, just presence was just so peaceful and light and joyful and all of the things that spiritual themes of the Advent season that are him, right? Characteristics of him. And so for me, it, that has been one of those things that just kind of is like refocused my heart to be like, Oh, this is how Jesus is. This is how he was in flesh. And so thank you God for sending him to us to dwell among us. Yes. Because. It's just such a beautiful thing. And then he died for us. And that's the most important thing, right? Is that he died for us to save us of our sins and to, that we could live, with God and with joy and with hope and with peace and with love. That's all that he bestows on us. By his birth and then his sacrifice. Yeah. Yes. Well, I, have done you version. They have Advent. Like you could just go, Yeah. Oh my gosh. I put Evan in and you will get all kinds like different links, I have done. the Bible project one, I did it so good. Okay. So side note, my husband's obsessed with the Bible project. Like we have all the Bible project books, the coffee table book, the, I mean, I love it too, but he especially, yes, well Jesus knew that we learned in story or parable and that's much of their video is that they take you through the story So the advent one by Bible project does come with the video and then Bible reading and then really good. I'd like to. Questions to ponder. Yeah. And it's good to do with your kids too, Eric will, he'll watch Bible project videos with our kids at night. And, oftentimes, especially with kids, they just need that visual. Yes. and I think that the Bible project, it's, it's a great resource for you if you are doing this kind of stuff with, Kids, whether that be your own kids or your nieces and nephews or kids you babysit, like yes, just in the format of the videos is so cool. I mean, the ones that I've seen, maybe they've shifted a little bit, it's written in as you watch and there must be some sort of learning thing that helps my brain with that. That it's not like it's all like on the screen at one time it's added in and in store anyways, Yeah, to do it with your kids for sure. I've done, Sarah Young's Jesus calling. She has one for Christmas. And beautiful too. It's white. It has little cranberries on the front. I have given it as gifts because it's so beautiful. It's just not very big. Yeah. and it doesn't necessarily say this This is the first week of Advent and we're talking about hope, but it takes you through 30 days, I believe, that's really a beautiful book and, but she has another one out, which I don't have. And it is specifically for Advent and Christmas. And it says Jesus listens and it's Advent and Christmas prayers for the season. So I think season. prayers accompany it, which is probably beautiful too and a great gift. Another resource, is daily grace co they they're great for all kinds of resources, but I've never heard of that. Oh, their, artwork on their covers and their content. It's all just a paper. Gorgeous. Okay. Yeah. She reads truth is not paper, right? I think they have paper. Do they have paper too? Daily Grace Co is mostly paper. If I'm wrong, somebody tell me, So we're talking a lot about paper, but I like having a physical copy of something. That's why I asked. Cause I just like being able to highlight, underline. Yes. It's right notes in the side. Helps me remember. Yeah. Me too. Learning process. Me too. Well, if you just go to their site and type Advent, you'll get all kinds of stuff. and then of course, Lifeway. I went to look up a couple cause I haven't, specifically used one of theirs, although I have, I do know they have some out for this season. I think Lisa Harper and Christine Kane has one, an Advent book, something for the holiday might not be specific Advent. And then, who else was I thinking of? Christine McClellan might have one. Oh. look her stuff up. I've done it and it's wonderful. So, I also thought that, the expectancy of his second coming, we've talked a lot about, his birth and, what he has ushered into the world because of that, but the expectancy of his second coming and what that means. And then how all those themes that, we walk through up to advent and For his birth time are also, Ironically ushered in by him, but also who he is. Yeah. And so do we live, do I, I should speak to myself, do I live expectant all the time, but specifically in this season? so I thought, what might, what I might do is I just wrote down. I wrote down hope and then peace, joy, love Christ. And then just a question for each week. And so, just to ask myself to make it applicable to my now in anticipation of him. So for hope I wrote, what are you hopeful for in this season? And so week one, which is going to be December 1st this year. I don't know if we mentioned that, but December 1st will be the first Sunday of Advent. It'll take us through the 22nd and then Christmas Eve we'll do the last candle. But, so what am I hopeful for? in this season? And I think are there things in my family? Are there things within my own spiritual walk that I'm hopeful for that could be recognized in this season? Or have I just even sat and thought, like you had said, with the word hope? What does that mean to me? What, what of him being hope? What's that significance to me? You know, we throw some words around during the season, but just spend some time with it. and then peace would be the next one. So the second week of Advent. where do you need his peace to permeate your life? And I was thinking about this one. and I thought I'm pretty good and I don't mean that really. I really got peace. I'm cool. I don't mean it in a like a, Oh, so great way. I mean it in Julie, you obviously don't have a good reflection of what's happening in your soul. I mean, he says he'll keep our hearts and minds in perfect peace, those who are stayed on him. But I know there's places that either I brush them aside in the corner of the worry box. Oh yeah. or that ground just has not been furrowed up because I have stomped it so incredibly hard I don't, I can't think about it. So again, just to spend time, where do I, Crave your peace Lord, but maybe I don't know it within my life. So that would be week two. And then week three is joy. Where and how does he bring you joy? I think this kind of goes along with Eucharist. Oh, we talked about giving Thanksgiving a couple of weeks ago on the podcast, but where does he provide joy in my life? And sometimes it's not the obvious things that are like, Oh yeah. Your friend came over and brought you flowers, by the way. Thank you, Lily, for my flowers for my birthday. Julie has a lot of flowers in her house for her from her birthday. It was very thoughtful. People love her. It was such a sweet birthday. but sometimes, thanking him for joy when things are hard. Yeah. Unexplainable joy. Why do I have that? That's because of the Holy Spirit in a certain situation. So I thank you Lord for that joy So just kind of the joy spots in our life. Yeah to think about that For week three and then week four. How do you see his love exemplified in the world this season? I just think there's a lot of things I, the word that comes to my mind is overpower. There's a lot of things that overpower my vision, or can, not all the time. Overpower my vision of his love exemplified in the world. I think we're told, through various facets, and it is hard and it isn't, a world without hurt or sin or pain. but I do believe that there's love exemplified, but we're told you don't see it. It's not there. It's too oppressive. It's not happening. It's the end. But Christ is living. We have a living king that always will. And his love is exemplified somewhere. So if we could just, you can be. His love exemplified like you can live that yourself. Yes. Yes. This season. So maybe how do we do it? I remember a side note, a story. We had a missionary come to our church and actually they were there, but they weren't there for the, To share in the service or they weren't a missionary partner or a mission partner, they were there he and his wife and, they actually were passing through to like another project and they were retired. I want to say he was a doctor retired. They take their mobile home and they just go to different mission service projects. We'll do whatever you need. We'll do doctor work. We'll build a house. And he's done this, not with this camper, but overseas, he's gone overseas too. Didn't drive there. he was very intense. When he explained to me, he had said, don't believe it. Don't believe that the gospel is not going forth in the world. it is alive. In some of the darkest places, don't believe what you hear. And that's what I think about love exemplified. Let's have our eyes open to that this season. And then the last one, Christ. How can you trust him to be the light of your world? Hmm. I want to sit on that a minute. How can we trust him to be the light of our world? Maybe where we're not trusting him. like you had said, how can we be, how can we be the light in the world this season? Yeah. I mean, even the tiniest flicker, it splits the darkness in the middle of the woods, like in the mountains. And so, his light can be, brought in places where we go, it's out there. So. How can we be the light or see his light in the world this season? So that that those may be questions that I sit with each week of advent to you that are simple Those are really good Julie. Thank you. I liked that. Thank you. Holy Spirit put that out there for everybody. That's not me So, I'll put those in the show notes Yeah so anything else about Advent that you can think of or you're expecting about or we haven't talked about or The heart of the season that it's, I think we, I think we did a good job covering what we could cover. Like, like I said earlier, when we were talking about this, I kind of pulled up some, articles and different things. And most of it was very just informational, very liturgical, those kinds of things. And I think, I think what we talked about at the beginning is what, what is the heart of Advent? Yes. You know what? Why, why are we living expectant? And it's because Jesus is coming back and it's because he loves us. Everything that God wants us to. To understand and communicate. It just all centers around his love for us. He loves us more than we could ever ask or imagine or realize his love for us is greater than anything we've ever known. And so to reflect on that during the season that he sent his only son to be born into a broken world and to live a life amongst us with us, and then to die for us is just one of the most beautiful. Things that we could even think of or wonder about. So just grateful to God for the gift of Jesus and hope that we can. Just really intentionally reflect on that during the season that can just be so overpowered by things of this world. Yes. I think that's part of the just practicing or observing the Advent season, is to push out some of the distractions that take our attention that we've talked about before, and some of them good things, but they still can take away from our, A real meaning for us this Christmas season. And one of the verses that was suggested for one of the readings during weeks was John 3, 16, that for God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son. So whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. You know, he gave us his son in the beginning. He gave us his son through his sacrifice and he gives us his son in the second coming. And that's beautiful. Very beautiful. Well, thank you guys for listening today. We hope that this, just talking about Advent was helpful for you. And it was helpful for Julie and I even just doing our research and reading about it. I feel like we came away with more than we, Anticipated. We gained so much. Yeah. So much about it. So thanks for listening. Thank you for being a really wonderful part of our time around the table today. We appreciate you guys listening and sharing with your friends. We just love you guys and so we hope that you live in anticipation of Jesus this season.