This book is intended as a devotional guide for the Advent season. Through the mediums of meditations, poetry, and prayer, it offers a spiritual resource for readers seeking to explore the many dimensions of this beloved season, and to deepen their appreciation of its mystery and wonder. Each day the reader is provided with either a prose meditation, based in Scripture, or a selection of poems, composed around the traditional themes of Advent/Christmas. The overall effect is that of a journey–a journey which moves, devotionally, through the days and weeks of December, toward Bethlehem, the stable, and the manger. Images, incidents, impressions, and items from the daily news are woven together to form a rich and rewarding tapestry, a pathway leading onward, an open door into the quiet places of the soul. Christmas Eve and Day are given special treatment, followed by a final section covering New Year's Day and the twelve days of Christmas. The book also provides a source of creative imagery and language for clergy, and other worship leaders, as they face the challenges of speaking traditional truths in a new and inviting way. Yet another use would be as a small group study guide for Advent.
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J. Barrie Shepherd. Destination Bethlehem
Also by J. Barrie Shepherd
Destination Bethlehem
Permissions
Preface
Acknowledgments
The Manger Calls Again
Homeland Security
At the Brink
Something for Christmas I
A Prayer to Open Advent
Advent Invitation
Going to Bethlehem
Hanging The Greens
Watch For It
How Many Miles to Bethlehem? I
Greeting
Advent Awakening
Advent—Opening Bell
Re-petition
Looking for Christmas I
Anticipation?
Seasonings
Early Advent
Advent Premonition
Gifts of Advent I
Something for Christmas II
A Prayer for Hope in Advent
That time again . .
Kaleidoscoping Christmas
Time to be Careful
How Many Miles to Bethlehem? II
Advent Candles
Christmas Mail
Lux plus Veritas
Advent Haiku
Looking for Christmas II
Advent’s Secret
Advent’s Reminder
Cataloguing
Stall for Christmas
Gifts of Advent II
Something for Christmas III
An Advent Prayer
Mid Advent
Advent Saturday
Late Call
How Many Miles to Bethlehem? III
Seasonal Decor
Aftershave
Trimming
Orange Alert
Looking for Christmas III
Intelligent Design
Nothing For Christmas
Lighting the Advent Candles
It’s About Time
Gifts of Advent III
Something for Christmas IV
An Advent Prayer for Immanuel—God With Us
The Coming of the Light
Have Seen a Great Light
The Messiah
How Many Miles to Bethlehem? IV
Gene Therapy
Wish
December Eighteen
Looking for Christmas IV
Intermission
Minimizing Magic
Pre-Nativity
Just Asking . .
Gifts of Advent IV
Room for Christmas
Bethlehem Bound
Nativity
A Prayer for Christmas Day
A Word for Feeble Knees
The Silent Seers
The Morning After
Merry Christmas! Third and Final Notice
Don’t Stop Me . .
Incarnating
Christmas Haiku
The Midwife of Bethlehem
Family Values
Herod’s Dream
The Foolishness of Love
A River Runs Through Us
Newsletter
Shining
Essence
Bibliography
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Between Mirage and Miracle: Selected Poems for Seasons, Festivals, and the Occasional Revelation
Faces by the Wayside: Persons Who Encountered Jesus on the Road
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This hope that arises from suffering, this miraculous hope born in the deepest of darkness . . . a shocking hope indeed among these merry marketing days of “Ho, Ho, Ho!” and holiday cheer. A bit of a downer, to be completely honest, this must seem for many today, considering the sought-after spirit of this season. But a hope, nevertheless, that folk can see, actually see with their eyes wide open, and therefore a hope that might last beyond the unwrapping of the last Christmas package, the popping of the final New Year cork. Paul described it as the hope that does not—as so many of these present passing hopes will do—disappoint us.
What is it like then, this shocking hope, this biblical hope, this hope that grows from suffering, through endurance, to character, and then blossoms into full-fledged bloom? The Hebrew word for hope has the root meaning of “to twist or twine” and is related to the word kivin, the word for a spiderweb. So much of our hoping has this spiderweb quality to it, this quality of surprising strength out of seeming weakness, of stunning beauty woven from the tiny, apparently insignificant strands of daily living. We live in, we live by, an interwoven network of hopes, each one lending strength to the others, and all of them, however fragile, somehow supporting us, leading us into the future.
