The word "Advent" means "coming" or "arrival". On the third Sunday of Advent, we light a rose colored candle, and that candle represents joy. The entire Christmas season is a celebration of Jesus birth, His coming to the earth in His First Advent. Just as important, it's a celebration of our anticipation of His second coming.
Squire Parsons, a friend of ours, wrote:
He came to me. He came to me.
When I could not go to where He was, He came to me.
Advent reminds us to thank God for the past, that He came to us, and to anticipate the future, when He returns for us. It also symbolizes the spiritual journey of individuals and groups of believers as we affirm that He has come; He is present; and He is working in and through us in the world today. We understand that we are living “between the times” of His first coming and the time when He will come again. We are called to be faithful stewards of what the Lord has entrusted to us as His people. Advent is a time to acknowledge our responsibility as a people commissioned to “love the Lord your God with all your heart” and to “love your neighbor as yourself.”
May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing with hope. Romans 15:13
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