Something New

Advent Meditations from BHT

A few years ago, Lauren and I discussed the type of Advent meditations we would love to have every Christmas season. We wanted it to be short and powerful; built off Scripture passages, but not just the ones that everyone knows - even if those should be included at some juncture. Give it some creativity and reach into the uncommon areas that Jesus inhabits in Scripture.

We wanted it to speak to our lives where we were, at least to some degree. Understandably this was unfair to ask of many Advent readings. Most focus on all the celebration of the season, and that is well and good. But Jesus doesn’t come at Christmas for just the happy people doing well. He comes in the darkness of the year for the people who are themselves trapped in darkness (Is 9:2). He comes for us - the ones thirsty for miracles, and hope, and something to believe in. He comes for the lame and the ugly and the smelly. He comes for the dead. He comes for the cancer patients and the child-robbed parents and the broken homes.

In the way she always did, Lauren thought about this for a while, and then said very simply, “Why don’t you just make one? The way we want it to be.”

And so we did.

Starting December 1, there will be a new section of But Have Trust entitled Unto The Lamb. These will be daily meditations for the Advent season running from December 1 to December 25. If you would like to follow along with this, you will need to subscribe separately (no, you are not automatically subscribed). Go here (or the above hyperlink) for a simple way to do that.

The passages are taken across the Bible, but with special thanks to the work of GF Handel. His work The Messiah might be meant for Easter, but it is fitting for Advent and Christmas for perhaps the same reasons it is so fitting for Spring. It is the story of Jesus Christ. And it has stood the test of time for a reason. It may be one of the greatest musical pieces in the history of the West. Below is a link to the version that Lauren loved the best. Listen to it this Christmas season. It will not disappoint.

The meditations themselves have Lauren’s fingerprints all over them, as literally as could be the case. She served as first listener, chief proof reader, and editor extraordinaire. She was gifted in many ways, but perhaps her truest spiritual gift was listening. Lauren would tune into a person, and nothing could distract her from that. It was a blessing to be able to talk so regularly to someone so intentional in listening. It is a humbling and beautiful thing to have her so deeply connected to these meditations. She continues to be a gift in more ways than one could count. Her radiance is palpable.