The first week of Advent is the week of HOPE. Hope is looking forward to something, waiting with expectation for something yet to come. The story of Jesus’ birth actually began thousands of years before He was born. God promised the people of Israel that He would provide a Messiah (Savior) to save them from their sins. For centuries, the people of Israel waited with great hope for the Messiah to come. This candle represents HOPE. When Jesus came, He brought hope to a dark, lost world. Just like the candle, Jesus brings light to our darkness.
The second week of Advent is the week of PEACE. Isaiah 9:6 tells us that Jesus came to be the Prince of Peace. The word peace is the Hebrew word shalom, which means completeness or well-being. Jesus didn’t come just to end wars but to make us complete by saving us from our sinfulness. All we have to do is trust in Jesus as the Son of God who came to save us, and we will have the peace, or shalom, of God. This week we are reminded that Jesus brings the promise of peace to our lives.
The third week of Advent is JOY. Joy is great happiness or delight, a deep sense of well-being that goes beyond our circumstances. Joy comes from the Lord in good times and bad. In Luke 2:10-11, the angels appeared to the shepherds in the fields nearby to announce that a baby has been born in the manger. The angels describe Jesus’ birth as “good news of great joy” because He came to be our Savior!
The fourth week of Advent is the week of LOVE. Jesus came because God loves us so much that he doesn’t want any of us to miss out on spending eternity (forever) with Him. All we have to do is believe that Jesus is the Son of God, who came to save us and trust Him as our Lord and Savior. God’s love for us is one of the main themes the Apostle John wrote about in the Bible. In John 15:13 it says that the greatest love anyone can have is to give their life for others.
The fifth candle celebrates the arrival of Jesus. These verses tell us that Jesus came as a baby born in a manger. The Bible tells us in Philippians 2:7 that even though Jesus is God and deserved to remain in heaven with God, He chose to come and be born as a baby to be our Savior. In week 3: Joy, we read how the angels had appeared to the shepherds to tell them about Jesus being born. We see how these shepherds responded when they finally saw Jesus for themselves – they were so excited they went and told everyone. Today we celebrate with the same excitement!
