Advent 2025 Reflections (Page 2)

The son of Jesse With the anointing of David as King of Israel, a new chapter begins in the salvation story. What began as God’s universal relationship with humanity, became a covenant relationship with the descendants of Abraham and Sarah. And God has been faithful to the covenant through…

Gingerbread Jericho Join the Prangnell family in building “gingerbread” walls of Jericho — an activity suggested in the Advent Activity Book that accompanies our Advent Devotional. (Families, if you haven’t gotten yours yet, they’re still available at the church!)

Ten Love Rules Author Ann Voskamp has a really lovely Advent book for families called, Unwrapping the Greatest Gift. Today I’d like to share with you her reflection on the Ten Commandments, entitled “Ten Love Rules”

The Lord is My Strength and My Defense My all-time favorite depiction of the Exodus story is the 1998 animated film, The Prince of Egypt. I encourage you to take a few minutes to watch the scene that shows the crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 14). And, now, as suggested in the journal prompts, spend…

Into Egypt Today I want to share with you our Sutherlun Six Advent tradition of unwrapping a Christmas children’s book each day of December until Christmas. They aren’t new books, but rather our 24 favorites from my (large) collection that I re-wrap each year. The practice has lapsed somewhat as my…

Pre-figure pre·fig·ure [priːˈfɪɡə] – be an early indication or version of (something): As I read through the scripture passage today, especially in the Jesus Storybook Bible, I was reminded of this word. We have been reading through the ancient stories in the book of Genesis together and each…

All Creation Waits Rev. Amy Sutherlun      These two chapters of Genesis aren’t easy ones. Beneath the surface thrust of the narrative — Jacob falling in love with Rachel, marrying her, and having a family (thus establishing the basis for the 12 tribes of Israel)…

God SaidI didn’t write a first-person account as the journal prompt directed for today, mostly because I couldn’t get past this one question: What was Abraham thinking? What could Abraham possibly have been thinking?What was he thinking when he went without a word, at a word from God,…

Genesis 18:10-15 10 Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. 11 Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of…

The Journey Thus Far: Genesis 1-11 In just the first 5 days of our journey through the Old Testament to Jesus, we have covered quite a few significant stories. It’s likely they were somewhat familiar, but if you’re like me, you may have noticed or wondered new things in reading them this time. In…