An Advent Prayer

If you were to come to our front porch, you'd encounter two signs:

Sign #1:

"No Soliciting - Unless you are a girl scout."

In other words - there's an open door to those bearing thin mints, trefoils, samoas, and all their cookie relatives.

Sign #2:

"Come in the evening or come in the morning. Come when expected or come without warning. A thousand welcomes you'll find here before you, and the more often you come the more we'll adore you."

Umm...no.

I've told my wife exactly which words I'd like to cross out and write over, so the sign would read as follows:

"Come after you've given a heads up and gotten permission. The less you knock, the more we'll adore you."

I'm less of a Scrooge than that makes me sound. I've just seen enough salespeople, Jehovah's witnesses, and political asks at our door to make me ignore the knock in favor of staying with whatever I was doing - even if that means doing nothing.

Which means this season of Advent ("the coming of Christ") couldn't have come at a better time.

The invitation of Advent

As much as I filter and screen who I open the door to at our house, Advent is the reminder of Jesus' knocking and greeting of Revelation 3:20:

"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me."

Can you hear the nourishment of the soul that comes with answering that knock? It's the reminder that Advent invites us to go to the door expectantly. This is no salesperson wanting something from you. This isn't somebody trying to debate you. This is not another party trying to change your vote.

This is the Lord God himself.

So let's begin Advent together with a simple prayer, and watch what happens:

"Come in, Lord Jesus. Let's commune together."

In light of that, it's time for me to go bring out sign #2 from where I hid it and hang it back up.

Until next week,

Nathan