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Our Church decked out for the season.
Advent, looking forward to the arrival of Jesus; and Christmas – the most wonderful time of the year, and perhaps one of the busiest!
My heart tells me, Sue, slow down. Savor this sacred season. But sometimes reality fights with desire.
Can my heart and my reality come together?
I have an idea. Echoes of Grace is trying something new this Advent.
I’m going to post each MONDAY (just for December). Each post will highlight a familiar scripture from the gospel of Luke and a few questions to focus our meditating, our hearts on the truth this wonderful story offers.
I’ll be praying for you … and for me … that these familiar scriptures will come alive in all new ways for us.
“But familiarity often does bad things to us.
Often when we become familiar with things, we begin to take them for granted.
… we tend to quit examining them.
…we quit noticing them.
… we tend not to celebrate them as we once did.
Familiarity tends to rob us of our wonder.
And here’s what’s important about this:
what has captured the wonder of our hearts will control the way we live.”
Come Let Us Adore Him, Paul David Tripp (Italics, mine)
For this first week of Advent, let’s ponder together the words of Gabriel to Mary recorded in Luke 1:28.
What posture do you need to assume to hear God’s voice greeting you this week?
Gabriel’s message to Mary began by acknowledging her identity. How do you describe your identity?
What message are you hearing from God this week?
In your current reality, what will bring you great comfort and perhaps great courage in knowing God is with you?
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Two other opportunities for you:
1. Boundless, a ministry of Focus on the Family, also offers a weekly Advent experience. This year my good friend Lisa Anderson, director of Boundless, partnered with Mark Bates, our former pastor to walk us through John 1 this month. There is a brief video and also thoughts to ponder. You can find it at
Or text, “advent” to 32728.
2. The gospel of Luke has 24 chapters. Why not read one a day from now until Christmas Eve? By December 24 you will have read an entire account of Jesus’s life, and wake up Christmas morning knowing WHO and WHY we celebrate.
copyright: Sue Tell, November 2025