Hope is Coming: Advent Devotionals
with Movies and Music.
Week One- Hope
What is Advent:
The word “advent” comes to us from a Latin word that means “coming”. Never heard of an advent devotional before? It’s basically like a Christmas countdown calendar, but with a Jesus devotional focus instead of focusing on the dates. It has been celebrated by Christians for at least 1500 years. Advent is typically the season, or devotional practice, that starts four Sundays before Christmas. It marks the coming of Jesus in three ways – His first coming 2,000 years ago, our hope for His second coming, and His coming daily into our hearts. It’s a season for us to acknowledge the hope we have in Christ while acknowledging that everything has not been set right yet. We can, and should, enter into places of darkness, where hope seems lost, bringing with us the light of our Savior. It’s a hard thing to do and this season is a good time to explore that together with an Advent devotional.
How Is Advent Celebrated?:
Christians have celebrated Advent in many different forms and fashions. One that we have found meaningful is having an Advent candle wreath. Or maybe making felt candles with little ones. Lighting a candle every Sunday while we talk about the new theme for the week of reflection. There are variations on what each candle means, but we will use fairly traditional meanings in this brief series of posts. The first candle is purple and represents hope, the second candle is purple and represents faith, the third candle is pink and represents joy and the fourth candle is purple and represents peace. Then we light a candle in the middle on Christmas celebrating the birth and light of Jesus which is white. What do the colors symbolize? White is for the purity of our Savior, purple is for prayer, and pink symbolizes joy liturgically- which is just a term that means the way it’s typically done in a church.
There are many ways to explore Advent. In this short series we will suggest two movies and two songs to discuss each week. One that’s safe for almost all ages and one that’s not as pre-school friendly. Movies and music can help us feel and experience things differently than we might otherwise feel them. And they are also great platforms to have discussions- they’re a little easier to have discussions around than a long written out advent devotional- although we love those too!
Week One: Hope
The first candle represents the prophets and hope! The prophets gave people hope in prophesying that a Savior would be born. The hope He brought when He was born and dispelled the darkness. It is also our hope of His coming again.
When I picture waiting hopefully for something, one of the first images that pops into my mind is children waiting expectantly for Santa . But there’s a lot to do to get ready for Santa ’s visit. You can’t just sit by the tree. Some people put up lights, go to parties, make cookies, and then- the hardest part for kiddos- you have to rest and refresh before the visit happens.
This week isn’t a week to sit around aimlessly wishing that things would be better than they are. Hope is more active than wishing. So this week I want to do more than just dwell on hope, I want to let the hope of my Savior shine through me. And I know that doing that is going to require some intentionallity on my part to rest in Him and soak up that hope and light. As well as getting out of my comfort zone to acknowledge some hopelessness. Thank you Jesus for the hope you brought us. How does Jesus bring us hope each day? How can we let Jesus’ hope shine through us?
Songs for Advent Week One: Hope
A Hopeful Christmas Song for All Ages: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Things weren’t going very well for Rudolph. Where did hope pop up and save the day in this song? Here’s a Youtube video with the song and lyrics.
A Carol of Hope: O Come O Come Emmanuel
What lyric stands out as the most hopeful to you? What part of the music sounds the most hopeful to you? Here’s Lauren Daigle’s version! I highly recommend her song Rescue as well during this week. (Also her Christmas album Behold is amazing!)
Movies for Week One: Hope
A Hopeful Christmas Movie for All Ages:
Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer (1964 Claymation)
There were lots of moments where people seemed without hope. Especially the scene with the lost and broken toys. What gave them hope? Have you ever felt misunderstood like Hermey did? What gave Hermey hope? Where did you see hope in the movie?
A Classic Hopeful Christmas Movie:
It’s a Wonderful Life
In It’s A Wonderful Life, George Bailey can’t find any hope in his situation. How does Clarence change his perspective? How can we change our perspectives this holiday season?
A Verse and Prayer for Advent Week 1:
Read Isaiah 40, Micah 5:2, and Luke 1:26-38 together and talk about where you heard hope in those passages.
Isaiah 40: 3-5 (MSG) Thunder in the desert. “Prepare for God’s arrival!Make the road straight and smooth, a highway fit for our God.Fill in the valleys, level off the hills, Smooth out the ruts, clear out the rocks.Then God’s bright glory will shine and everyone will see it.Yes. Just as God has said.”
Micah 5:2 (VOICE) But you, Bethlehem of Ephrathah, of the clans of Judah, are no poor relation— From your people will come a Ruler who will be the shepherd of My people, Israel, Whose origins date back to the distant past, to the ancient days.
Luke 1: 31-32 (NIV) You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.
Prayer:
We suggest praying through some of the above scriptures, if you have little ones- let them lead a prayer thanking Jesus for coming, or praying a pre-written prayer like this one or this one from the United Methodist Church’s website.
Dear Jesus:
Today we start getting ready to celebrate your birth. We remember that people a long time ago were waiting for You to be born. Just like them we are hopefully waiting on You to come back and set everything right. Amen
We hope that you have a beautiful advent season! One that is filled with hope, faith, joy, peace and Jesus.
You can find our second week’s devotional here, and our third week’s devotional here! Please take a minute and share them if they were useful to you!
Want to check out a couple of Advent devotional books?
We suggest:
Waiting on the Word by Malcolm Guite- A poem a day.
Watch for the Light – Readings by a collection of authors for each day of the season.
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift by Ann Voskamp- A family celebration of Christmas with daily devotionals, questions and activities.
Craft and Pray Around the World by Beth Gorden- 24 different crafts that celebrate different countries and their Christmas traditions
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