Advent Series Conclusion

Hey everyone! This blog concludes the “Advent Series” that ran from December 1st to January 19th. You can view the entire series here.

When a story becomes too familiar, it’s easy to forget what it’s actually saying.

Now, for most Christians, the story of Advent is pretty familiar: Mary is visited by an angel, she and Joseph have to travel to Bethlehem while she’s pregnant, she gives birth in a barn because no one will take them in, and various casts of people come to worship the baby Jesus. This story is told time and time again, every Christmas, through sermons, hymns, Advent devotionals, or (if you’re me) a hastily-run live Nativity scene with the younger cousins—and decades-old costumes—during the family reunion.

Ah, tradition.

The Christmas story is familiar, so familiar that our religiously diverse neighbors know exactly what that very large yard ornament is. A man, a woman, animals, and a baby means it’s the Nativity, and folks unfamiliar with other parts of the Bible know that Jesus was born in a stable. Or a barn. And a manger is involved (though I’ll confess I’ve never heard the word “manger” in any other context).

Point being, when a story becomes too familiar, it can be easy to forget what it is we’re actually looking at, like a photo in the bedroom or a painting on the office wall. We see it all the time, so our eyes pass right over it. When this starts to happen with a Biblical story that is told (and should be told) every year, it’s important to renew the imagination.

What do I mean by that? Well, as a writing teacher, I frequently challenge my students to examine their opinions. Why do you think that? What makes you say that? Read this article again and see what else the author has to say. How can your writing add something new to this conversation? As I tell them, you have been created in the image of God, and therefore endowed with the ability to create. So use it!

When I was approached to write a series for Advent to help demonstrate the main focuses at Spring Church, I was immediately drawn to writing fictional short stories. Advent is an important time of waiting and preparing, and at the same time, it’s easy to overlook why it matters because the story’s so familiar. Where fiction and story-telling in general can be useful is in reimagining what something can look like, and showing a story, or idea, in a different way. I know as a fiction writer I can be biased, but I think stories do a lot of work in demonstrating what can be possible.

But I couldn’t just write stories without any thematic structure. There had to be something to tie them all together. In order to provide a good structure for the series, I used the following focuses as my backbone:

Advent waiting changes us.
Jesus arrived helpless to display God’s power.
God speaks through overlooked people.

The fictional stories then revolved around these ideas, working to highlight why the Advent season, and Advent waiting, is so important. Also, after talking to the Spring Church pastors, I made sure each story took place with a different person who could have a casual conversation with someone they would encounter in daily life, who would be easy to talk to. These commonplace conversations could then serve as examples for what talking to others about Advent might look like.

And wow, did I have fun with them. It’s not every day I get to write fiction as my job (one day it’ll happen) and hopefully that sense of fun, and wonder, comes through. These characters are who I’ve imagined to be real people, trying their best, working too hard, and relying on God to get them through it. It’s not easy to love God more than your greatest desires, but it’s possible.

With God, it’s possible.

So, thank you for reading this series. I hope you find it a little bit easier to make room for Jesus, walk along the faithful path, and pay attention to the overlooked people who might have something to teach you. I know I have lots to learn.

-Emma

Previous Posts