The Eleventh Day of Advent

The Eleventh Day of Advent

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

My little children, 
these things write I unto you, 
that ye sin not. 
And if any . . . sin, 
we have an advocate with the Father, 
Jesus Christ the righteous . . . . “

I John 2:1

You know how it is in most homes at Christmas. The tree goes up, and one by one the gifts are placed underneath, in their beautiful paper, often with intriguing cards from the giver. Most of us, adults and children alike, go by, pick them up, shake a little, and wonder what’s inside. Usually all the punching and shaking won’t reveal the truth, especially if the giver has carefully disguised the gift.

Well, that’s not so with our Heavenly Father! God has given us the most incredible gift ever, wrapped in the flesh of an infant. And if we go to the Scriptures, we need not “guess” what was in that tiny baby. God will tell us!

In that little infant on that first Christmas morn lay the only righteous person ever born, Jesus our Savior who would grow to become our advocate with the Father! What a gift!

If we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that we have sinned. Oh, perhaps we have managed not to do the big stuff like armed robbery or adultery or murder. But we have spoken unkindly, or untruthfully, or angrily (without cause), or selfishly. We have not loved others as God has loved us. We have not given with cheerful hearts. We have not served out of a great desire to please God. We have not prayed fervently for those in need or even for ourselves. We have not studied to learn what God would have us do or how he would have us live. We have not loved the Lord our God with all our hearts! We have sinned!

But we have an advocate, one who speaks on our behalf, one who took all those things that we did or didn’t do and confesses them to the Father as the sins he took on himself on our behalf on that cross. God’s gift to us that first Christmas was literally the best thing that has ever happened to any of us! We have that baby Jesus grown to be a man, sacrificed, and raised to sit at the right hand of God to be our “advocate with the Father.” What a present!

Father, thank you for Jesus, our advocate. Thank you for this wonderful gift whose benefits we enjoy every day. Thank you for knowing exactly what we needed! Remind us often of what it means to have Jesus as our advocate with you. Amen.

The Light of the World
prepared for Homosassa United Methodist Church, 2008,
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator