Advent 2023
Advent Week 1: Hope
Advent Week 2: Peace
Advent Week 3: Joy
Advent Week 4: Love
A Daily Prayer for Advent
Christ Jesus,
we remember how You became human,
making Yourself vulnerable and dependent like us.
We see how You come now, gracing us continually
with Your Spirit’s power and presence.
We wait expectantly for the day of Your return,
to bring us into the fullness of Your kingdom.
Help us, Lord, to hold onto hope,
to be grateful and honest, to keep abiding in You.
Amen.
“Let There Be Light”
By Kelly Wilbanks
The first words echoing into eternity were,
“Let there be light.”
Did it pulse out of the darkness?
Did it shatter it like glass?
Did darkness and light bounce like oil and water?
Did the darkness flee?
Did stars sweep across the heavens,
like lanterns in the expanse of space?
Light changed everything.
Ever since light was created,
it has waged a war on darkness.
God is the source of the light.
Then and now.
His light began the world.
His light saved the world.
His light kindles and rekindles hearts to reflect
His light to people living in darkness.
We did not make the light.
We did not create it.
We do not sustain it.
We are vessels for it.
Like Mary carrying Jesus in her womb.
The light of the world— in an itty, bitty living space.
We are light carriers.
Oh, how I’ve pressured myself to be so much more.
How often have I let this flame fizzle out,
thinking it unimportant?
Virgins regard their lanterns.
They didn’t create the flame—
they were only supposed to keep it lit.
You do not create the light.
You reflect it.
You are a vessel.
When God chose Mary as a vessel,
He didn’t spare her the journey to Bethlehem.
He didn’t give Joseph the means to make her more comfortable.
She gave birth in a barn.
If He didn’t change her circumstances,
how can I expect Him to change mine?
We are light bearers,
we tell about the light,
we model the light,
we worship the light,
and we reflect the light of the world,
keeping with the first words that ever echoed into creation.
“Let there be light.”
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“Peace Passed Over”
By Kelly Wilbanks
God fashioned a peaceful earth.
It was good.
It was complete.
He could rest knowing His work was finished.
The mathematical exactitude,
Of a spider’s web.
The impossible flight
Of the honey bee.
The transformational showstopper
Of the butterfly.
The garden, bursting
with infinite design,
A creative resting spot
for the God almighty
to walk through
on a sunny afternoon.
Can you imagine it?
His joy?
His pride?
His love for every detail… admiring each atom.
Marveling at what each genetic blue print
Revealed when it came to life.
How long did this peace last
Before his image bearers,
the very ones He’d created
To share in this perfection,
Wandered into the shadows,
Choosing their reasoning and judgment
Over the warnings of the divine?
Peace shattered.
Murmurings, Churning, Changing…
An earth filled with ripened fruit,
Now furrowed with thorns.
Animals at rest,
Becoming prey and predator.
A people, unhurried, unworried,
Now in conflict.
Violence was predicted in the garden.
Redemption was prophesied in the garden.
He will strike his heal.
He will crush his head.
There was not one righteous,
Enough to save humanity,
From Abraham to David,
Each one mired in their own sin.
Only God’s Son,
A holy and righteous lamb,
Could take away the sins of the world.
Only He could
Create a bridge back to the garden.
Through this war waged on sin and death
We were granted access to life and peace.
What did that look like?
It didn’t look like peace.
It looked like a battle for peace.
Each cell screamed
On Jesus’ bloodied back,
Yet, He bore the cross
Choosing God’s wisdom,
God’s plan for humanity,
Over—His personal suffering.
Murmurings, Churning, Changing…
Jesus chose God’s wisdom
Over His own,
Rectifying man’s choice
In the garden.
Taking on the covering
Of this sacrifice
Is choosing
Divine wisdom now.
This is the path to true peace.
A new peace. Reborn
Rebuilt on the
Knowledge of its
Cost and sacrifice.
Not a peace felt on earth,
But, rooted in the eternal
A promise unfolding
A hope unyielding
Held in the tension of
Now and not yet.
Jesus’ covering allows us
To weave back into
The infinite, majestic pattern
of God’s intelligent design
Because we are Kingdom people,
Living with an urgent hope
For peace on earth, again.
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“Joy in the Wilderness”
By Kelly Wilbanks
Mud, straw, bricks, chains, Masters, whips
A people moaning, groaning, hoping
Four hundred years, a slave
Praying for oppression to cease, for peace
Beseeching their God for a rescue
10 signs, Blood, Frogs, an Angel of death
A first pass over, a final release
Chariots thundering in the distance
Slavery seeming better than corpses in the wilderness
But…waters divide, freedom on the other side
Songs sung by slaves set free, in the in between
Joy in the wilderness
Before the promised land
Before God’s promise fulfilled
Joy defined by a future destiny, anticipation
Hope in a future kingdom
A land, a nation, a blessing, a Savior
A lineage, a seed, a Redeemer,
But…a kingdom falls into ruin,
Prophets cease, people scatter, tyrants reign
Four hundred years of silence and pain
Darkness until a star in Bethlehem appears
Unconstrained Angels joyously claim,
“Good news and tidings of great joy!”
Joy brought to earth
Emmanuel, God with us
To a world expectant, waiting,
To a world enslaved, unknowing
Both true, wise men knew, kings confused
Shepherds, first in queue to see joy incarnate
Joy in a barn, Joy held in arms
Son of both God and man
A final pass over, a future release
Joy in the wilderness
Joy is an embrace to leprous man
Joy is a stillness to the waves
Joy is picking up your mat and walking
Joy is trusting all will be redeemed
It is enduring the cross, for the joy set before Him
When all seemed lost, death in a tomb
But, hope breaks through
A resurrected King
The fullness of joy released on earth
Emmanuel, God within us
Choosing joy incarnate; the spirit manifest
Happiness hangs on the horizon,
In a world marked by sin and death
Joy is remembering you’ve been rescued
Surrendering, transforming, radiating
Hymns sung in prison cells
Strangers breaking bread
The commissioned, spread
It is joining into a chorus composed of all creation
With the rocks, and trees, and clay breathed to life.
Rejoicing, and again I say rejoice.
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"Love is the Reason"
by Kelly Wilbanks
Love is the reason, love is the why
Love is what sparked this earth into existence
A Being, a Triune God overflowing with love
Creating a world purposed to receive it
An ecosystem, a habitat, an environment perfectly suited
Renewed and repeated, of other centered God given-love
But, we lost our connection, we lost our epicenter, our locus
Love became unclear
We forgot the source of our love.
We traded it… for less.
We got caught in our shadows.
We projected. We protected. We hid.
We experience things called love that never should have been.
God made a plan to overcome it.
To give a world devoid of love
A gift, a model, a reflection, a revelation
A rebellion, a servant, a sacrifice
Jesus lived in love
In washing feet, in moving towards lepers,
In healing the broken, in casting out demons,
In caring for those he did not stand to benefit
He remembered the forgotten,
He served the abandoned,
He touched the communicable,
He welcomed the outcasts,
This love reflects the heartbeat of God
Jesus died for the selfishness and corruption of his enemies.
For those who plotted, betrayed and mocked,
standing frenzied at his cross.
This counterintuitive, enemy embracing love
Reveals God’s heart for every one of us
His wild, unwarranted grace
His death defying rescue
Connecting you back to your design
So you can become Love
by experiencing the Divine
Jesus is our conduit
This love invades, it pervades, it fills, it glows
like an ember in your heart, brightening the road
Revealing, redeeming, releasing,
Taking you to people, to places,
You cannot imagine living—
without the love of God
A moment longer
You were never meant to sustain love without God
We squint in a haze, in a fog, fumbling, stumbling
The blind circling the blind, needing, always needing
more love, as basic as water and air
Without it babies wither in their beds
Because we are made of more than muscle and bone
The need to love and be loved is woven like a
Metaphysical reminder of what we were made for
Love is the reason