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Jesus
Jesus
Jesus
Jesus
Jesus
Jesus
One of the images came to me during corporate prayer when someone prayed that God would peel back the layers, the walls that keep us from Him. The picture that came to me was a flower blooming. As the layers of a flower peel back, it moves toward its peak in beauty. The other image came during the song "Stronger" by Hillsong. The lines "so let your name be lifted higher/be lifted higher" repeat four times. As we sang the lines, I saw the name "Jesus" arise from hands uplifted to him. And as the words "be lifted higher repeated, I saw the word Jesus continue to repeat and scroll upwards, getting larger as it arose toward heaven.
Both images speak to advent, God's love is blooming, peeling back to reveal the beauty of the Christ child. As Christmas nears, the name of Jesus is lifted higher. The world can commercialize it as it will, but the stable, the manger, and the baby that causes the world to ask, "What child is this?" slip quietly to center stage. And the answer from the Christmas carol written in 1865, "The babe, the son of Mary" comes out of the shadows and into the glorious light from that star that shone so long ago.
Advent, think of it as a song coming to a crescendo. Quiet music that has been there all along increases in volume and builds to a climax as Christmas arrives anew. May yours be especially sweet this year!