Column: Pilgrim's Progress: Mary Taylor: My Advent calendar
Perfume, chocolate, whisky, chilli sauce - you can mark the journey to Christmas with every kind of Advent calendar. It is a countdown but maybe cheese or lingerie wasn’t quite what the liturgical calendar makers had in mind as they kicked off the church year.
For Christians, Advent isn’t just about preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus with joy. It’s also about being ready for his coming again; believing that God has more to unfold in the great story of creation, salvation and restoration. There is another chapter to come in which Jesus will complete his victory over evil.
In fact, Jesus regularly told his followers to be both ready and patient. He said: "Keep awake … you do not know what day your Lord is coming."
If God’s rescue seemed a long time coming, they were not to lose hope nor to think that it didn’t matter how they lived. They were to continue in his way of life even if all the news seemed to point to a world in chaos and conflict. A world a bit like ours where we are tempted to look to our own self-interest and not to those around us.
What is in your Advent calendar this year? Will you open something fresh each day that is a gift of walking in the footsteps of Jesus?
We could start with St Paul’s list of the fruit of the Holy Spirit and open up our daily life to love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Then we could start again with faith, hope and love. Or the challenges of the Sermon on the Mount – love your neighbour, pray for your enemies, don’t worry.
It could be a calendar that changes our life for ever. To us all, grace and peace.
Rev Mary Taylor
Baptist Minister