An Advent Treasure Hunt!
by Rachel Conrad Carlson
On this third day of Advent, I want to encourage each of us to let the little kid inside free for a bit! Remember how you felt when you were young and Christmas was just around the corner? How you studied the presents and tried to guess at their contents. Or for the more mischievous among us, how we carefully unwrapped them, peeling each piece of tape off and peering at the treasure inside the paper, then wrapping it back up again and dreaming about the present until December 25th arrived. This is the exact kind of child-like spirit that today’s advent readings call us to.
The gospel reading in Luke 10 shows us what holy joy looks like. Jesus had sent seventy-two apostles to visit many towns, telling them to heal the sick and proclaim “‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.” In our reading today, the travelers had just returned with exciting news of their power-filled journeys. Jesus rejoices with them and then praises God: “for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to the childlike” (Lk 10:21-22). Jesus reminds us that when we get into our adult “know it all” mindsets, we lose sight of the treasures that God has wrapped up just for us.
So today, I hope to embolden each of us to get excited, get curious about what this Advent season holds for us. What small treasures has God prepared just for you to discover in the next few weeks? What truths about Jesus’ incredible arrival here on earth might God want to reveal to you? What could the birth and life of Christ really mean to you, personally? Let’s enter this season with joy in our hearts, and let’s allow hopeful expectation to guide us as we search for the divine gifts awaiting us!
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