Advent has become my favorite season in the church calendar. It is the first step in the cycle of light as darkness is dispelled. We often begin the Advent season with these words from Isaiah 9:2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. Advent focuses on preparation for the 2nd Advent of Christ and his return, the consummation of the Kingdom of God. We are also preparing to celebrate His 1st coming; Christmas and Incarnation, a mission to redeem & rescue humanity. Advent Spirituality has various themes; expectation, preparation, reflection and most of all Advent is anchored in HOPE. Romans 13:11-14 reminds us: You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness & put on the armor of light; It’s About TIME! Advent calls us to see time not only in calendar days but through the lens of eternity, with an eternal perspective. Hope draws us into a holy longing to see God’s Kingdom come and God’s will being done as in heaven, so on earth. Sometimes this world can be hard, cold, painful, unjust and cruel. We suffer in a harsh and sometimes brutal environment which seems even more so in these days of cultural and political polarization and divide. We often sense a brokeness that we don’t know how to mend. Yet, in Advent we are reminded that this is not the ultimate reality and we are invited to long for a world made new by the grace of God. I’ve lived in Florida for nearly forty years, a place where beauty surrounds me on every coastline—even if hurricanes visit more often than I would like. However I grew up in North Georgia. I’ve always been a mountain boy at heart, most at home in the rarefied air of high altitudes. I may live in a state where the highest mountain is Disney’s Space Mountain, but part of me will always be more at home in steep elevations, peaks and crags and navigating winding, switchback roads. I get glimpses in pictures, postcards and visits to places like Banner Elk, North Carolina or Jackson Hole, Wyoming and the Grand Tetons and now, after a bucket list trip to Scotland, the Scottish Highlands! They create in me a deep longing, reminding me there’s another world beyond the flat land where I now dwell, a vertical world where my heart has taken up residence. I carry these images with me, in my head and on my phone as a reminder of the joy I find in these places. Jesus gave us an equivalent of a collection of postcards from home. In parables, meals, moments of healing, and boundary-crossing conversations, Jesus gave us glimpses of life in God’s kingdom—images starkly at odds with the world as it is. Through prayers, silence, contemplation, deep community and friendships, we can be transported to touch a life where there is no more pain or suffering, no more disease of grief, no more heartache, no more death. Jesus’ stories and interactions serve as a reminder that the world will not always be the way it is. And this kingdom is not only for “the sweet by-and-by.” It is breaking in now . Though we may not yet experience the absence of darkness, we can attend to the glimpses and manifestations of the light of Christ now. Fresh Expressions has this kingdom focus as we see people coming to faith, being welcomed and becoming a part of a faith community, doing life together, exploring the higher aspirations of God’s Kingdom. Whether it’s at a coffee shop, a playground, a gym, a dinner table, you name it - we are seeing the world changed, one life at a time. If one of God’s attributes is that God is truly omnipresent (meaning God is everywhere), we cannot confine God to Sunday mornings and a building where the church meets. Jesus commissioned the church to; go and make disciples and this happens anywhere and at any time. Fresh Expressions is truly an Advent Mission positioned with light and hope in a world desperate for both. We have our own “snapshots” of Kingdom life ( you are welcome to enjoy these stories here ). So in these Advent days, we hope; we trust; we are encouraged. We open the scrapbook, Kingdom Postcards of God’s promises and remember the world to which we truly belong. Hebrews 11 reminds us that our spiritual ancestors “saw the promises from a distance and welcomed them,” longing for a better country, a city and heavenly residence. We too are sojourners—citizens of a kingdom still coming, yet already at work among us. As Augustine would say, We long for The City of God ! Advent is a season of promise. And at Christmas that promise is realized in Jesus. A seminary professor once asked, “Did Jesus fulfill all the Messianic prophecies?” The answer was, “Not yet—but He fulfilled enough of them to assure us that He will fulfill the all of them.” Will this world be made right? Will pain and suffering someday be no more? You betcha! We glimpse it now where self-giving love turns the other cheek, extends grace, crosses barriers, and turns strangers into friends. This is how the Kingdom comes…and we see this happening daily through the Fresh Expressions movement. Advent gives us a promise to hold. Let us cling to it with hope and expectation as each week we light another candle and through our lives, manifest that light in the world.