Daily Advent Reading
This is our Digital Advent Calendar for 2023. We would hope you could join in daily during the season of Advent. Every day’s Advent Gift box will have a new Scripture to read and reflect on. Every Thursday there will be a Children’s Ministry Activity for you and your children. Every Tuesday there will be a question for adults to enjoy and engage on our Facebook page.
Philippians 2:6-8
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Devotional
In some ways it is human nature to romanticize our memories of important events in our lives. Sometimes we do that with the beautiful story of Jesus’ birth. Our nativity scenes of Mary, Joseph, and the baby in a stable filled with adoring animals, as shepherds and wise men look on, and a radiant star streams overhead.
Having witnessed my wife give birth to all four of our children I can tell you that it is anything but peaceful and serene. Jesus wasn’t wrapped in satin, but in strips of cloth. His bed linens were straw, and his bed clothes were strips of cloth. None of this lessens the power of the story. In fact, the story offers evidence of what Christ was willing to go through to enter this world of ours.
Jesus’ life on earth from the creche to the cross was a challenging one. He could have been born to parents of means and lived in a mansion. He could have worn fine clothes and eaten only the choicest foods. He could have had armies of angels meeting His every need. He did none of that. He laid heaven aside so it could one day be ours.