Advent

Here we are in the in between. Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is still a few weeks away. So how are we to spend this tweason if you’ll indulge my coining of that word? How can we hold on to the best of the last holiday while eagerly anticipating the next?

Holding on to the gratitude we felt at Thanksgiving is certainly a start. Sure, we are to be grateful at all times. But gratitude is more top of heart when everything we read or ponder has a thankfulness theme. I Thessalonians 5:18 encourages us to give thanks in all circumstances. Not necessarily for all circumstances but finding something to be thankful for in the midst of our situation no matter what it is. Perhaps writing with this verse in mind, Sarah Young wrote in the November 28 entry in Jesus Listens: “I give You thanks, regardless of my feelings, and You give me Joy, regardless of my circumstances.”

So give thanks. When we are able to purchase a gift for everyone on our Christmas lists, let’s give thanks for the resources that make those purchases possible. If a harried shopper cuts us off in traffic or takes the parking spot we were aiming for, let’s give thanks we aren’t going home with a dented fender. Give thanks.

I love that Sarah Young reminds us of the promise of joy because that’s something else that spans the seasons. As we move into the first week of Advent, the time we anticipate celebrating the coming of Christ to the world, we begin a four-week journey that helps us focus on hope, love, joy and peace. All four should fill our hearts and minds during this tweason, but joy can be a part of every week, every celebration, and every memory. I have four friends who have lost their soulmates, their life partners, their husbands this past year. In the midst of their grief, may the memories they have bring joy. Or so I earnestly pray.

Before we know it this tweason will have passed away and it will be Christmas! Christmas, a time for remembering that out of His great love for us God sent His son to dwell among us. Emmanuel. God with us. May the anticipation we feel now be centered more on Him and less on the harried hustle and bustle to come. During this in between time, let’s set our hearts on the true meaning of Christmas and let the rest be just the colorful trappings of the holiday.

So Happy Thanksgiving, Joyous Tweason, and Merry Christmas! God bless us one and all.

Have you noticed that we have become a society of people looking down? And we’re not looking down at beloved small children or pets as much as we are looking down at smartphones. Looking down to check Facebook, email, Twitter, Instagram or our GPS.

Technology can be helpful and crucial, no doubt about it. But looking down all the time can not only give us a neck ache, it can even be hazardous. Who can forget the YouTube video of the woman falling into the fountain at the mall while looking down at her smartphone? And no telling how many shoppers this season will be bumped into or knocked down by another shopper walking while looking at his or her phone.

What if we all spend more time looking up this Advent season, and less time looking down? What if we shift our gaze to the angel on top of the Christmas tree, the stars that shone over Bethlehem fields, or snow-crested peaks like those of the majestic mountains all around us here in Colorado? Do we really want to miss all that glory because we are looking down?

The Psalms of Ascent in the Bible give us examples of God’s people looking up instead of down as they sought Him with all their hearts. I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? says Psalm 121:1. I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven, reads Psalm 123:1.

If ever there was a time for us to lift both our eyes and our hands in praise to our Lord and Savior, it’s at Christmas time. And the Lord is happy to help us do that. But you are a shield around me, O Lord; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head, we read in Psalm 3:3

Once we are looking up again, we can share a smile with a harried store clerk. We can notice when someone needs help getting through the door or into her car. We can enjoy the birds at the feeder, the deer in the fields, sunrises, and sunsets as all heaven and nature sing. Don’t those sound like wonderful reasons to lift our eyes this Christmas?

First published by Fellowship of the Rockies, Christmas 2014.

‘Tis the Tweason!

Lifting Our Eyes