At Home In Advent

The following words for reflection are taken and adapted from “At Home In Advent - A domestic journey from Advent to Epiphany” from Gordon Giles (BRF - Bible Reading Fellowship). The entire book is available from Eden.co.uk and would be recommended to get a fuller experience of this time of devotion and meditation.

The purpose of these devotional is to give you something of an everyday object or motion which can focus our thinking through Advent. There are 3 sections:

Travelling in Advent
At Home in Advent
The run up to Christmas

We have travelled home, we have made some preparations, and now we settle in for the last run up to Christmas.

Birth Certificate: Marking the beginning

Read: Luke 1:1 - 4, 2:1 - 5

One of the joys of being a minister is marrying people. In the process of going through the requirements I have to ask the question: Do you have your birth certificate? Eh… maybe. I wonder how many people can put their hand to their own certificate right now?

We have become fascinated with these things over the last years with programs on the TV like Who Do You Think You Are… What does the birth certificate say about a distant relative… etc.

What would Jesus’ say on his?

Name:	Jesus
Gender:	Male
Father:	The Great I Am Creator of All
Mother:	Mary, a teenager
Birth registered by:	Joseph, Stepfather

But of course that doesn’t tell us the real story. The real story is recorded in these pages of the Gospels, this is His birth certificate! Glory to God in the Highest!

What does your birth certificate say about you? Is that the full picture?

Did you follow in your parents footsteps?

We are dealing with identity here and if we leave it all to a piece of paper we miss out on the wonder of what God sees in us. As Jesus was born to man… we have become His siblings.

Welcome to the family!

Pray for family dynamics over the festive period.