Belmont University Advent GuideSample

Love came to a little Judean town called Bethlehem and changed the world forever. It was God’s way of jumpstarting the human experiment he began on the morning of creation. The stars flung cross the heavens, the mountains scooped out of the seas and stacked to the skies, the birds of the air and the rabbits of the glen and the fish of the waters, none of these things were enough for human beings to see fully God’s love for them. God then chose a people as his own. He cherished them and protected them against their enemies. He loved them with all his heart, but it was not enough for human beings to see fully God’s love for them. God then sent his only son to say, “This is how much I love you.” John tells us, “God’s love was revealed among us this way: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him” (1 John 4.9). He then continues by saying what God’s love should mean to us: “Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another” (v. 11). Each year, Advent comes to us and guides us to the doorstep of Christmas. We peer inside and see a little baby who is God’s love for the world. If we listen to his infant cooing then we can hear God’s love for us and the world. This season of the year reminds us that God really does love us and we should really love each other. This love from God that we share with each other changes the world. For, “if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us” (v. 12). May we love with full hearts this Christmas season! Merry Christmas! Darrell Gwaltney Dean, College of Theology & Christian Ministry