This Advent season looks a lot different for me. Within this new normal we are experiencing, I do not have the privilege to attend the same type of Advent service I grew accustomed to growing up. Growing up, I attended the Advent service with my parents in our home church every Sunday of the month of December. I fell in love with the litany and candle lighting process. Now that we are experiencing a new normal, I had to engage in the Advent season differently. Because the Advent season was different for me, it presented a slight challenge to the traditional Advent service I attended as a child, and to be honest, I didn’t truly understand what Advent meant to me personally, outside of the church building.

Advent is a season of preparation for the birth of Jesus and the second coming of our Lord and Savior. Matthew Kelly has a beautiful way of describing this season. “God of hope, I look to you with an open heart and yearning spirit. During this Advent season, I will keep alert and awake listening for your word and keeping to your precepts. My hope is in you.” Advent is a time of awaited expectation. As we await the second coming, we have the opportunity to learn about and celebrate the birth of Christ with Advent services and litanies.

In thinking about the Advent season, I decided to engage in my Advent celebration. I took to the web and the Bible app to have a deeper understanding of the history of the Advent season. I settled on completing a plan via the “Bible Project” focused on the word Shalom. Shalom is the Hebrew word for Peace, meaning safe, sound, perfect, complete, and my favorite definition, lacking nothing. Shalom is a beautiful word that I am now adding more to my vocabulary. I love the focus on wholeness and lacking nothing. In Christ, we can be in a true state of Shalom, if we trust in Him and follow His will for our lives.

This Advent season, I hope you take the time to dive deeper into the word. I hope you learn to understand the Lord in a deeper, fuller, and more complete way. Enjoy this Advent season and draw nearer to the Lord.