There is something mesmerizing about the dark starry sky. I can get lost gazing towards the sky as I watch the stars shine so radiantly. Being in the city makes it hard to see the elegance of the night sky. But going to a more desolate area makes it possible to see the beauty that occurs after sundown.

A couple weeks ago, my mom came running into the house exclaiming, “Hurry up! Come outside! There is a bright blue light in the sky!” As I stepped outside, I noticed a bright, yet fading light. “It’s gone. I’m sad you missed it” my mom stated.  She continued to say that there was a bright light traveling in the sky, as if it were trailing off of an airplane. “As I continued to watch, the light trail ended and it turned into a blue haze. It was so bright! I wonder what it could be?” 

That must have been the thought of the shepherds as they stared into the night sky on that cold, Christmas morning. “What is that bright light? That star is shining so radiantly!” A star of that magnitude must have brought many questions and mixed emotions, just as it did to my mom and the rest of San Jose.

The bright light in San Jose was also seen in Southern California and Arizona. It turns out that a military base in San Diego shot an unarmed missile into the sky that night. This occurrence was mentioned in the news for a good week and a half. I still hear people talking about the “bright blue light”.

That light brought questions. That light grabbed people’s attention. That light is still being discussed in the workplace and in the media. But what that light didn’t bring was hope. It didn’t cause an event that would dramatically change this world. That light will soon be forgotten.  

There is one light that will never be forgotten. There is a light that is still shining brightly. There is a light that will bring hope AND love AND joy to this world. There is a light that will never be taken away and no man, no creature…no thing can extinguish that light.

That light was the light the shepherds saw in Bethlehem many years ago. That light was the light that was visible to the Wise Men who lived miles and miles away – Wise Men who were drawn to its beauty and radiance.

I love the last lyric of the hymn “Watchman, Tell Us Of The Night”.  It reads:

“The Prince of Peace, Lo! The Son of God is come!”  

Friends, the Son of God has come! He is the gift that brings us light in our darkest times.  Jesus is the light that was sent to this earth to save us from this hopeless world.  Once we experience that light in our own lives, it is extremely difficult to let that light burn out.  

This Christmas I encourage you to be a light to the people around you.  Be a light that will make people say, “What makes her shine as bright as a diamond?”

Be a light that will gravitate others toward Christ.

Watchmen, Tell Us Of the Night
Words by: Sir John Bowring

Watchman, tell us of the night,
What its signs of promise are.
Traveler, over yon mountain’s height,
See that glory beaming star.
Watchman, does its beauteous ray
Aught of joy or hope foretell?
Traveler, yes – it brings the day,
Promised day of Israel.

Watchman, tell us of the night;
Higher yet that star ascends.
Traveler, blessedness and light,
Peace and truth its course portends.
Watchman, will its beams alone
Gild the spot that gave them birth?
Traveler, ages are its own;
See, it bursts over all the earth.

Watchman, tell us of the night,
For the morning seems to dawn.
Traveler, darkness takes its flight,
Doubt and terror are withdrawn.
Watchman, let thy wanderings cease;
Hie thee to thy quiet home.
Traveler, lo! the Prince of Peace,
Lo! the Son of God is come!

Credit: Photo by Sarah Simon // Instagram: @themintgardener

My mornings look like this:

Jumping out of bed, rubbing my eyes, wishing I had another hour in bed. Crawling to my bathroom, staring at myself, wondering if I could go another day, again, without washing my hair. “I have no time” I say to myself. I’m already looking forward to crawling back into bed because the day is scheduled to be hectic.

In the whirlwind of my day, I have been busy, snappy, and restless. I’ve told God that I’m too busy for Him – that He can take a number with everything else in my life.

Yes, I’ve shoved God to side with making my bed and cleaning out my car.

As I write this in November, my heart struggles to get into the Advent season. My Christmas to-do list is a little wild and my mind is not finding peace.

What is Advent all about, again?

Waiting on the arrival of Christ.

Waiting…something I have much difficulty in.

I love Psalm 62. It’s this powerful anthem that I want tattooed on my heart.

“I will wait quietly before God, for my victory comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will never be shaken.” – v.1

I don’t know what you’re waiting for in life or even if you’re waiting at all. Maybe you have lists like me. Lists that keep growing. Lists that have caused God to be shoved off to the side, as well as shoved off your deepest needs.

Maybe your deepest need is silence, but the craziness have buried that need.

Maybe your need is joy.

Or friendship.

All these needs just pushed off to the side because our lives have taken us away. I feel in my heart that God is saying, “Why has this become the normal? Why is being busy the thing you need to be doing? Why aren’t you taking care of yourself?”

Maybe you don’t even know what your need is.

I love what Frederick Buechner says about waiting.

“I think we are waiting. That is what is at the heart of it. Even when we don’t know that we are waiting, I think we are waiting. Even when we can’t find words for what we are waiting for, I think we are waiting. An ancient Advent prayer supplies us with the words. “Give us grace,” it says, “that we may cast off the works of darkness and put upon us the armor of light.” We who live much of the time in the darkness are waiting not just at Advent, but at all times for the advent of light, of that ultimate light that is redemptive and terrifying at the same time.”

You may not even know what you’re waiting for, but you’re waiting. Your heart is waiting for what God is going to give, even when you didn’t even realize you have a need.

God is so in tune with us, that He knows us so intimately.

We find fullness of joy being in the presence of the Lord.

“You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of presence and the pleasure of living with you forever.” -Psalm 16:11

As we quietly wait for the Lord, with intention or no intention, may we walk into His courts knowing that being in His presence is where we will find our source for life and light – that our deepest needs will be met. As we get closer to celebrating the birth of Christ, my prayer is that we can bring the Kingdom to earth so that our friends and family will also experience His presence -that their ultimate needs will encounter Christ and He will breath life on the most buried desire.

The Advent of Our God
Words by: Charles Coffin

The Advent of our God
Our prayers must now employ,
And we meet him on his road
With hymns of holy joy.

The everlasting Son
Incarnate soon shall be:
He will a servant’s form put on,
To make his people free.

Daughter of Zion, rise
And greet thy lowly King,
And no not wickedly despise
The mercies he will bring.

As Judge, in clouds of light,
He will come down again,
And all his scattered saints unite
With Him in Heaven to reign.

Before that dreadful day
May all out sin be gone;
May the old man be put away,
And the new man put on!

Praise to the Savior Son
From all the angel Host:
Like praise be to the Father done,
And to the Holy Ghost.

Credit: Photo by Sarah Simon // Instagram: @themintgardener

When I close my eyes and imagine that day when we will all meet Jesus Christ I feel pure joy and excitement.

Just imagine that one day our God will descend from Heaven and we will behold all of His beauty and power with our very own eyes. We don’t know when that day will come, but in the meantime we have the unique ability to be filled with His goodness, His love, His mercy, and His power.

So until that day comes, we ought to live with expectancy. We ought to use our time wisely and make sure that we seek every opportunity to prepare for that glorious day. Life has a way of swallowing us whole with no mercy at times. We get busy, priorities shift, and sometimes we find ourselves lost in responsibility and the demands of work, family, etc. The tragedy comes when life becomes so overwhelming that we miss the opportunities to experience the fullness of God.

I like to think that when we give God the opportunity to speak to us, it equips us for life. It gives us the confidence and reassurance that we indeed can get through anything because God promised He would never leave us nor forsake us.

Those daily reminders of who God is are critical because it renews our faith and perspective on life. So even when life gets busy and we have no clue how we are going to find our way, we must take things one day at a time, and maybe even hour by hour.

To be prepared in life is to be equipped with God’s word. To be prepared for that day when we meet our Lord and Savior is to make a conscious effort to live according to His word. To be prepared means we live in anticipation of His return while yet depending on Him to be our very best till that day.

I like to think that when mistakes are made, it is a beautiful reminder that without God we are nothing. Only He is perfect and it brings me extreme peace in knowing that we serve a God who cannot and will not fail us, but we must do our part. That is worth celebrating.

I believe with all my heart that when we prepare ourselves by praying, spending quiet time studying, and making a true genuine effort to honor God in our day to day decisions and actions that it brings a smile to His face.

I hope that on that day when I see God for myself that He would be pleased with me. When I meet Jesus I want Him to be proud of me. I want Him to look at me as His child and feel pride in knowing that I made every effort to live a life that gloried Him. So my responsibility it so be mindful of how I live, how I respond to others, to be forgiving, etc. Faith and discipline requires discipline but even in that we honor God.

Are we properly equipping ourselves to experience the work of God in our lives? Are we really prepared for the day God returns? Are we intentionally making God a priority in our lives or are we giving Him a little bit of our time here and there?

These are hard questions but ones we should be mindful of in our walk with God. Let us seek to please God daily. Let us remember that when we fall short, God’s love remains. Let us be mindful that even when life is not perfect, God is.  When we equip ourselves to be our best through Christ, we are indeed making God happy.

Wake, Awake, For Night is Flying
Words by: Phillip Nicolai

Wake, awake, for night is flying,
The watchmen on the heights are crying;
Awake, Jerusalem, at last!
Midnight hears the welcome voices,
And at the thrilling cry rejoices:
Come forth, ye virgins, night is past!
The Bridegroom comes, awake,
Your lamps with gladness take;
Hallelujah!
And for His marriage-feast prepare,
For ye must go to meet Him there.

Zion hears the watchmen singing,
And all her heart with joy is springing,
She wakes, she rises from her gloom;
For her Lord comes down all-glorious,
The strong in grace, in truth victorious,
Her Star is risen, her Light is come!
Ah come, Thou blessed Lord,
O Jesus, Son of God,
Hallelujah!
We follow till the halls we see
Where Thou hast bid us sup with Thee!

Now let all the heavens adore Thee,
And men and angels sing before Thee,
With harp and cymbal’s clearest tone;
Of one pearl each shining portal,
Where we are with the choir immortal
Of angels round Thy dazzling throne;
Nor eye hath seen, nor ear
Hath yet attain’d to hear
What there is ours,
But we rejoice, and sing to Thee
Our hymn of joy eternally.

Credit: Photo by Elizabeth Berry // Instagram: @ellie.m.berry

I adore the holidays.  The air gets crisper, people are kinder, music gets merrier, and my car starts to smell like a Christmas tree; it’s the closest I think I’ll ever get to Hogwarts-level of magical.

It can also be one of the most packed and hectically scheduled times of the year. From mid September until New Years, I usually have 2-3 weekends that aren’t filled with events, parties or other time-commitments months in advance. When I am this busy, sometimes I think I’d lose my own head if it weren’t firmly attached. If I haven’t planned ahead to have stuff on hand that isn’t in the forefront of my mind, I’m almost certainly going to forget about it until it’s too late. Then because I needed those things and forgot, I’m scrambling to make it all work, and usually running late. This all converges to make me so much more likely to be stressed out, freaked out and very narrowly focused on what I need.

Unfortunately, this season is also one that is rife with opportunity to be selfless, thoughtful and generous – if we are being intentional about paying attention. I’m convinced that we miss out on dozens of opportunities to make a difference to those around us every single day, simply because we aren’t prepared and aware of what those needs look like.

As Christians, we know that we should be prepared for Jesus to come at a moment’s notice. We don’t get a calendar alert the night before, or a 15-minute warning. The Bible says that we should keep watch, because no man knows the day or the hour.

Matthew 25 tells it this way:

“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

“At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’

“Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’

“ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. 

“Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’

“But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

We know that can’t procrastinate with salvation, thinking we have time “some day” to get that taken care of. We’ve got to be prepared and aware. I think this concept extends far beyond just accepting salvation, however, and reaches into every facet of our Christian faith. If I go into a situation prepared to be selfless or generous, an opportunity will present itself to be those things, without fail.

That’s not to say that it always looks like we think it should or we picture in our heads. I remember once when I pulled up to Starbucks to work on some homework on a Saturday morning, I noticed a guy with a sign on the corner. When I went inside, I bought an extra breakfast sandwich and a coffee with the intention of giving it to him, but when I went back outside, he was gone. Feeling foolish for spending money I could have saved, I sat it next to me and figured if nothing else I’d eat it later, only to have a young guy walk in 30 minutes later who hadn’t eaten in several days. I was able to talk with him about who and where he was in life. After our conversation, the lady at the table sitting across from us had tears in her eyes and bought him lunch and several bottles of water.

I went in prepared to feed the man sitting on the corner, and nothing about that morning turned out like I thought it would, but the Lord didn’t let that intention and preparation go to waste. He brought someone else in my path that needed what I had to offer, and softened my heart and gave me the opportunity to speak life over him in the process.

I challenge you, in this advent season, to prepare yourself to be selfless, generous and thoughtful. Even if that just means committing to yourself to find one way to be kind to people who don’t deserve for you to respond that way, or asking someone about their story, or expressing gratitude – bring your extra jars of oil with you, so that when the opportunity presents itself, you won’t miss it.

Christian Children, Advent Bids You
Words by: Esther Wiglesworth

Christian children, Advent bids you
meet your Lord upon his way;
watch, for now the night is waning,
soon will dawn the endless day.

Christian children, Jesus bids you
daily pray “Thy kingdom come;”
watch, and wait for his appearing
till he come to take you home.

Christian children, he anoints you
with his Spirit from above;
see then that your lamps be burning
with the fire of faith and love.

Christian children, when we think not
we shall hear the aweful cry,
“Go ye forth to meet the Bridegroom;
haste, for Jesus draweth nigh!”

Christian children, they shall meet him,
faithful children of the light;
they whose lamps are trimmed and burning,
and their garments pure and white.

O how blessed to fall before him!
O how blessed his praise to sing!
Love him, serve him, and adore him,
in the city of our King!

Credit: Photo by Sarah Sandoval // Instagram @sarahhhvictoria