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Dennis Hendrix, 3412 Chester Lane, Bakersfield, CA  93309

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Gail McCreanor, 22860 Saddleback Drive, Tehachapi, CA 93561

• Minister's Musings

This is a “betwixt and between” time, is it not?  We find ourselves betwixt Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Between baking turkeys and baking cookies.  Between giving thanks and buying gifts.  Between family coming in and going out and family coming in and going out!  Between carving a bird and putting up a tree.  Between removing the pumpkins and displaying the Nativity.  Between….

 Well, betwixt and between is a time we often forego or forget.  It is a season we call Advent.  it is truly a most remarkable time for each of us, and for the church, as we await God;s coming to us.

Advent is historically the preparatory and anticipatory season beginning four Sundays before Christmas and lasting until Christmas Eve.  Mostly we bring an end to the season of Advent during a service of worship awash with candles and scripture and carols and manger and a circle where we join in singing “Joy to the World!”

We acknowledge God’s incarnation and entrance in that babe born over 2,000 years ago.  We give glory and praise to God, as did the angels, shepherds, and others in recognition of that special birth of Immanuel come to us, glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to all humankind.

Strangely, the reason Advent is so important is not what has historically taken place.  It is, admittedly, a remembrance of an event of centuries past, but is more importantly a reminder of what is to come!  Advent is the season afor remembering that God will be coming again and ia time of peace will eternally blanket the world.

Now, God comes all the time, I confess, in many and varying ways.  God comes to us in the new born child, in the smile on the face of a loved on as they pass from here to eternity

Do we not experience God in the warm embrace of our spouse, children, grandchildren, and friends who continually assure us of God’s presence in our midst.  God appears in a myriad of ways, sometimes expectedly and others very unexpectedly.

So, Advent is not only a season, but a lifestyle.  Advent is a way to await and to acknowledge God’s breaking into our life and our time.  Really, I guess we are not “betwixt and between” Thanksgiving and Christmas but we are free to bask in the glory of God’s presence in our lives and in the world.  Thanks be to God. 

Blessings, Alan