Baptists are not usually great liturgists. It's not what we learn. A friend surprised me by asking how I would observe Advent and I was a little startled by how random and frankly secular my observances are.
So consequently, I am prompted at the very least, to be more deliberate and thoughtful this year as I think about this bedrock truth of my faith: Jesus' Incarnation.
Here's a poem and thoughts from my Bible reading today in Matthew 13:45-46:
Have you searched until you've found,
The jewel worth laying all things down?
A pearl exquisite, costly, rare,
So you gave all and did not spare?
A pearl wouldn't flip my switch, because it's not how I'm made, but the inference is that there is something (Someone) in life for whom it is worthwhile to turn everything upside down. There is Someone around whom a real life can be built.
There is Someone who should fill our thoughts. Something ... a Kingdom and King who must become the organizing center so that everything else becomes comparatively minor. Finding this we "let goods and kindred go/this mortal life also."
Jesus is the great gift of Advent.
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