Sanctuary Foundation Advent Devotional Day 24
Every country I’ve ever visited at Christmas celebrates with music. Songs are a powerful way people cross boundaries and connect with each other and with God.
Perhaps the first ever Christmas carol is contained in Paul’s letter to the Philippians. It is a wonderfully poetic description of Jesus’ coming to earth – a lyrical feast on the theology of hospitality and Christmas.
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”
For Jesus to serve our needs, he needed to give up everything. He not only chose to leave the perfection and glory of his sanctuary in heaven but chose to come to an occupied country, to a poor family, to unmarried parents to a small town, to become a helpless baby laid in animal feeding trough. What more could he have done to associate himself with the vulnerable? How much further could he have gone to demonstrate that service involves sacrifice?
If Jesus gave up all that for us on that first Christmas, what can we give up for him and for vulnerable people around us this Christmas?
Thank you
Krish Kandiah
Director, Sanctuary Foundation
Thank you for joining us on this Season of Sanctuary Advent Journey looking at the themes of welcome and hospitality that lie at the heart of the Christmas story. As you prepare your hearts and homes for Christmas, please consider opening doors of hope for those around you. For more inspiration and information please visit www.sanctuaryfoundation.org.uk