“Advent is made of the moments. This slow unfurling of grace…Each day of Advent, we will actively wait.” Ann Voskamp

Advent means coming. Advent means Jesus is coming. And each day of Advent we turn our gaze to Him, and wait for the beautiful day of his birth.

I’ve had Ann Voskamp’s book The Greatest Gift since last Christmas and have been waiting all year to read it! When the reminder on my phone went off yesterday and said “Get ready for Advent, start reading The Greatest Gift” I was so excited! (yes I set a reminder in my phone a year ago so I wouldn’t forget) Her writing is so beautiful and poetic. I am so excited to dive into this book as Christmas draws near. I will try to blog about it every day so you can experience it also! If you go to her website http://www.tyndale.com/web/greatestgift/ and type in the code JESSE, you can get print outs for an advent tree. Each day is a different little ornament you can hang up on a tree or some branches in a vase. Some way to mark the passing of Advent and the coming of Christ. “Anticipate Christ, and celebrate Christmas, His coming.”

Today’s picture is a stump with a branch coming out of it. From Isaiah 11:1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

 

In the silence of a midwinter dusk, there is far off in the deeps of it somewhere a sound so faint that for all you can tell it may be only the sound of the silence itself. You hold your breath to listen. You walk up the steps to the front door. The empty windows at either side of it tell you nothing, or almost nothing. For a second you catch a whiff in the air of some fragrance that reminds you of a place you’ve never been and a time you have no words for. You are aware of the beating of your heart. The extraordinary thing that is about to happen is matched only by the extraordinary moment just before it happens. Advent is the name of that moment.

~ Frederick Buechner