Advent Countdown

Preparation

Today is the day before the December countdown to Christmas starts. For Advent and Christmas this year our family's theme is " He Shall be Called" - referring to the names of our Saviour. So on this site I will be putting, God willing, a short daily devotion and photo of a corresponding small polymer ornament.

Anyone is, of course, as every year during Advent, welcome to double post with your creative endeavours.

Preparing the Way

To introduce the theme and what will follow on subsequent days throughout Advent, here is a brief meditation on the names of God.

Song (To be set to a tune later when tune-maker returns)

He Shall Be Called

Word of God who made all things,

Lion of Judah, King of Kings,

The Bread of Life on which we sup,

The Living Water springing up,

Light of Heav'n and Morning Star,

Dearest Jesus, Thine we are.

Though Thou our guiding Shepherd art,

Yet as a Lamb you take our part.

In a manger Jesus lies;

Angels praise Him in the skies.

As Shepherds kneel before Him low,

So to the stable let us go.

Alpha and Omega Thou,

True and Faithful then and now,

Oh, lead us Jesus as Thine own,

Up to Thy heav'nly shining throne.

Introduction – Pre-Advent

God is much too glorious for any mere human to look at Him. When Moses, the great man of God, asked to see Him, God graciously gave Moses as much of his request as he could survive: God passed by him and covered Moses with His hand so Moses saw only God's backside and would not be consumed by God's Holy glory. Exodus 33: 21ff

But, while we cannot know God through our sight, as we usually like to ascertain the qualities of things on earth, yet God has revealed Himself to us through many names. He has personal names, title names, and descriptive names. They all refer to the one God, and each tells something about Him, but not the whole of Him at once, for we cannot with our finite minds understand the whole essence of God – it would consume us, for imperfection cannot stand with Perfection.

God gives Himself the personal name of “I AM.” A wondrous array of meaning is wrapped in these two short words. “I” stands for a personal being, a unity of self, with self-knowledge, and one who differentiates Himself from others self's. This is a hint of the creative nature of that being, that He made things outside of and separate from Himself, yet things that only existing as extensions of His creative energy – for if God stopped thinking of any one of us or any one thing, that thing would cease to exist as if it had never been, even in memory.

“AM” is the essence of being, of existing, and if referring to a “self” then also of living. When the

“I” says he “is,” then he is self-referential, meaning he has knowledge both of himself and things related to the concept of being. What does it mean to exist and know you exist? It implies some activity, at least of mind, and some awareness of abstract qualities, like goodness and language and reason and truth.

“AM” is a present tense verb, occurring now. For this “I” all is current, making Him eternal, outside of time, with no beginning and no end. If God is the eternal “I AM,” subsisting in Himself, then He must necessarily have power to carry on that existence, which leads to the other attributes we associate with divinity: omnipotence, and so forth. We could carry this further, but this sets forth the idea of the complexity of the name God gives to Himself.

When God revealed Himself in some ways to His creatures, people put what they discovered of God into their own languages. Vast troves of words have been written about the various names and titles of God, Yahweh, Jehovah, Lord, LORD, and all the descriptive names for Him. In this Advent season we will focus on some of the descriptive names of our Lord.