The postures we enter the Christmas season with can make all the difference in how we experience it. In the midst of a season known for happiness, joy and light, we invite you to bring all your heart postures—the joyful ones, the hurt ones, the anticipatory ones and the anxious ones to the manger.
Through our 5-week blog series, Postures of Advent, we’ll invite you to step into what the reality of the coming of Jesus means in our messy and broken lives. We’ll walk through heart postures that inspire us to surrender to, refocus on, and embrace the grace of our King Jesus. There’s room for you, your doubts and your busyness on the journey. Let’s walk on.
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Week 1: Eyes Fixed
Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. – Matthew 2:2
Christmas is coming—and with it, shopping and lists and family gatherings and somehow, more decorations coming out of storage than you put away last year.
You’re trying to find a sliver of a corner on the calendar to squeeze just one more Christmas concert in. The advertisements all around you are screaming that you need the best, biggest, brightest, latest and greatest this season. It leaves you completely overwhelmed every day.
It’s not long before we’re desperately asking: Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?
It’s not long before we’re desperately looking for Jesus amongst the distraction of Christmas capitalism that ruthlessly fights for our gaze.
It can be so easy to forget that this season is about worshipping Jesus, just like the three wise men so determinedly did all those years ago. They fixed their eyes on one thing—going to worship Him.
What would happen if you started this Advent season by fixing worshipful eyes on Christ?
Bea, a Compassion-sponsored teenager from the Philippines, has seen what can happen when she puts Jesus at the centre of her life, fixing her eyes on him. Despite her family being broken, with her father in prison, she has hope.
“Jesus is the glue that holds our family together. If God were not the centre of our family, with our father in prison, there’s no telling what kind of a person I would be now.” – Bea
Bea’s worshipful posture, with her eyes lifted and fixed on Christ, is a beautiful image of how we can be entering this season. There is so much vying for our attention, and it’s easy to get distracted from Christ—the centrepiece of this season and the reason we give gifts, throw parties and gather as family.
Above all else, He is the only one who can truly fill us, which is why we have come to worship Him.
Reflection
What distracts you from worshipping Jesus during the Christmas season? What can you do to keep your eyes fixed on Christ over the next four weeks?
Prayer
Jesus, in this season that can get busy and distracting, with family or travel or lists or all of the above, help me to fix worshipful eyes on you. You are the centrepiece of this season—and we have come to worship you. Amen.
Action
Choose a worshipful Christmas song to play at least once a day this week, to remind you to fix your eyes on Jesus in this season and always. Can’t think of one? Some of our favourites are O Come Let Us Adore Him, Light of the World and O Holy Night.
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Postures of Advent Series:
Week 1: Eyes Fixed
Week 2: Head Up
Week 3: Knees Bent
Week 4: Hands Open
Week 5 : Arms Wide
