Advent is not Christmas. Christmas comes the Eve of December 25, and it lasts for twelve days. Advent is the season that begins four Sundays before Christmas, it actually is the beginning of the church year, a year-long telling of the story of God’s work of Redemption in Jesus Christ.

Advent is a season of slowing down, of waiting, and keeping hope that Christ is coming into our world. Christ came at Bethlehem and will come again at the end of the age in “power and great glory,” but He also comes again and again in this “in-between” time. Advent calls us to wake up, to be still and silent, to practice patience, and know that Christ is coming.
            To mark this time of waiting, we light the candles of a wreath. One for each week, and as the candles are lit we see increasing light. Each of these candles have a significance for us. The first candle is a reminder of hope, the second points us to peace, the third, joy, and finally we light the candle that reminds us of love.
            Every year the candles have been three purple and one pink. But this year, there is a little change. Rather than using purple this year, we will use dark blue. More and more churches are making this shift from purple to blue, and there are several reasons behind this. First, purple is a color often associated with the season of Lent. We put a purple cloth on the cross during Lent, and if we had paraments for the communion table and pulpit they would be purple during that pre-Easter season. Churches have desired to make a visual distinction, and many have chosen to go dark blue for Advent.
            The reason this deep blue color has been chosen, at least in part, is that it is the color of the sky just before dawn. It is no longer the black of night, but there is just enough light to turn it a deep blue. When you see that color, you know that dawn is not too far away. There is reason to hope for a new day, because you see that light is coming.
            The Light “that shines in the darkness” is needed in our world today. It seems that darkness is all around us. But we know that the night is nearly over. There is reason to hope. Christ has come, Christ is coming, and Christ will come again.
            May the deep blue of this years (three) Advent Candles be to us a reminder that the night is soon past. Light is about to break on the horizon. It may be the darkest season of the year as we move toward the winter solstice, but it is when it is darkest that the light is most visible.
            Happy Advent, let us wait in hope.