Advent – Week Four LOVE
My Advent Prayer: As I ponder the mystery of this last week of Advent, help me, O, Lord, connect more deeply with Your love for me and for every person whose story has, is, or will intersect mine.
This final week of Advent, the candle of LOVE is lit. It joins previous candles, symbolizing HOPE, PEACE, and JOY.
If I were asked to describe God in only one word, I would choose LOVE.
My favorite name for Jesus is Emmanuel—God with Us. One of the things I love most about the Gospels is that through the stories and words of Jesus, I see—in a way my humanity is able to comprehend—the love of God illustrated through examples of how Jesus did life in his humanity.
A spiritual understanding of divine love is not a one-time event but an ongoing journey.
In today’s post I’d like to highlight a Christmas hymn with which I wasn’t familiar until a couple years ago. I appreciate the profound simplicity of these lyrics written by Christina Rosetti (1830-1864).
Love Came Down at Christmas[i]
Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, love divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and angels gave the sign.
Worship we the Godhead,
Love incarnate, love divine;
Worship we our Jesus:
But wherewith for sacred sign?
Love shall be our token,
Love shall be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and to all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.
In her poem, Love Came Down at Christmas, Christina personified LOVE as the babe born in a manger.
No ordinary baby—this baby of whom angels sang—this baby whom shepherds and wisemen worshipped.
This baby was the incarnation of God.
Love coming down at Christmas taking on human body and human nature.
Love that came down at Christmas would travel through infancy, childhood, the teens, and young adulthood.
Then, in only three short years of ministry, Love that came down would illustrate what God’s most profound Love looks like.
In his death and resurrection, Love who came down at Christmas built a bridge between God and humankind.
You may be immersed in all the last-minute details of this lovely but hectic season. You may be asking, “How in the world can I get everything done? Or, as one overwhelmed young mom commented with a sigh, “I don’t even know if we’re going to have Christmas this year!”
Won’t you, along with me, take a moment today out of the busyness to reflect on the amazing gift of the incarnation—LOVE that came down at Christmas?
God, bless us with a mere glimpse of the LOVE that came down at Christmas this final week of Advent.
[i] https://www.songandpraise.org
