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Pat Layton

Helping Women Move From Past To Purpose

The Colors of Advent

8 Comments


The refrigerator has been cleaned out of leftovers that have been pulled in and out of the fridge and microwaved 4 or 5 times over the past 4 days. All that was salvaged has been made into soup.

Yesterday I gathered everything that is brown, yellow, gold or orange that decorated my home for the Fall season and packed it away for another year. 

It is time for my favorite color to take a step up! 
To PREEN! To GLOAT! To SWELL!

Advent has arrived. 

Advent is the official beginning of the “Church Year” for most churches in the Western tradition and officially began yesterday, November 30th. 
It is a beautiful season of color and special celebration that will take center stage in the lives of those who understand it’s meaning across the entire World from now until Christmas Day.
The fact that many who participate are unaware of the true reason for the season, does not weaken it’s Majesty.
Although the retail world tends to favor Red, Green, Silver and Gold, most churches have at least a bit of PURPLE!
I especially love the traditional colors of Advent. 
My favorite color is purple and it is, in fact, the first color you see when you enter my home. 
As a young Mom, I used the holiday colors of red and green. Over the past few years I have passed all of those goodies over to my young nieces and daughters in law and have chosen to glamorize the everyday colors that I love and already have in my home, for the celebration of the newly born Messiah!
Purple is the color of penitence: the realization of our sinfulness, and repentance: the resolve to change. 
Purple is also the color of royalty and decorates the World as a stage to welcome the Advent of the King. 

Purple as a color of Advent is also used during Lent and Holy Week and reveals the connection between Jesus’ birth and His death. 
The nativity cannot be separated from the crucifixion. 
The purpose of Jesus’ coming into the world, of the “Word made flesh” and dwelling among us, is to reveal God and His grace to the world through Jesus’ life and teaching, but also through his suffering, death, and resurrection. 
To honor this truth, Advent was originally a time of repentance and fasting, much as the Season of Lent and so shared the color of Lent.

The Advent season remains marked by a spirit of expectation, anticipation,  preparation, and of a particular longing for things to be made right with the World. There is a yearning for deliverance from the evils of our culture, from a sense of being incomplete or inadequate for the challenges of life. 

It is the cry of those who have experienced  injustice, pain, loss and trouble in a world under the curse of sin. 
It is the celebration of those of us who have experienced deliverance. 
God has heard our cry for redemption, restoration and salvation!

Advent announces anticipation of a King who rules with truth, justice and righteousness over His people and in His creation. It is that hope for the coming reign of the Anointed One, the Messiah, who will bring peace, justice and HIS glory to the world, once and for all.

Advent is a season of Celebrating the Arrival of Christ the King.

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Comments

  1. Thanks for the visit.

    I love this sentence from your post. “The nativity cannot be separated from the crucifixion.” I think we too often forget that piece and in our culture, Christmas is a much bigger deal than Easter. It seems that the emphasis should be equalized or swapped. But I don’t see that happening in our culture anytime soon.

    Have a great day!

    Reply

  2. Thanks so much for commenting on my blog. Your blog is gorgeous! I love your header…and your post was wonderful.

    I’m thinking more seriously about adding “advent” to my holiday traditions. I did it as a child, but dropped the tradition as a married woman.

    Blessings,
    Sandy Cooper
    http://www.godspeakstoday.blogspot.com

    Reply

  3. I’m so glad you visited my blog, because finding you here has been such a blessing.

    I enjoy the colour purple because of it’s association with royalty, but have never thought of it as a Christmas colour. Well, that has changed :o) I’ll definitely be adding more than a touch of purple to my decorating. Thanks for drawing my heart to remember the King who became a baby.

    Blessings,
    Joy

    Reply

  4. I was jumping on to comment on the same phrase that Amy noted:

    “The nativity cannot be separated from the crucifixion”

    Wow.

    Ummm. Ummm. Ummm.

    By the way, glad you found Joy – her blog is wonderful!

    Reply

  6. Ladies,
    Thank you all for your visit to Sweet Tea and your encouraging words.
    This new blog is definitely one of the BEST things that I did in 2008!
    I love meeting new sisters in Christ and love sharing the precious things that God puts on each of our hearts.
    Blessings!!!
    Pat

    Reply

  7. Good morning, Pat.
    “Advent announces anticipation of a King who rules with truth, justice and righteousness over His people and in His creation. It is that hope for the coming reign of the Anointed One, the Messiah, who will bring peace, justice and HIS glory to the world, once and for all.”
    Those words a King who rules with truth, justice and righteousness over His people… just set my heart dancing!

    Thanks for the lesson on advent. Truths often overlooked in the busyness of our culture that has over-commercialized this celebration.

    Love your purple… you always do such a nice job decorating your pretty house.
    Meems

    Reply

  8. Thank you Meems. To have you praise my decorating skills is a thrill.

    (Check out her blog friends and you will see why!!)

    Love you,
    p

    Reply

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