Why Advent

I had a good conversation with a friend the other night who asked my what's the importance of Advent--why observe it? It was a good, honest question. I've been a part of several churches in my adulthood as we've moved to different areas. Some of them follow the liturgical year wholeheartedly, others mostly focus on Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter, and some barely make note of Christmas and Easter.

I've come to appreciate the rhythms and markings of the liturgical year, from the First Sunday in Advent to Christ the King Sunday and everything in between. A friend recently shared this article from Rob Bell on the importance of Advent. He explains it with much better word pictures than I could put together.