Advent Through the Alphabet

is for Forgiven.

I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for [Jesus] name’s sake. -1 John 2:12

From the beginning, the bible is full of sinners. From Adam and Eve with the tempting fruit to Paul and his early attack on the church. David was a good king but is also remembered for one of the more serious times of sin in the bible when he killed a soldier so that he could have his wife. Jacob repeatedly lied and deceived others and Peter was quick to act foolishly. Even the people in the bible that we lift up as heroes of the faith were not good at obeying God’s laws.

We can add our names to the list. We know how God wants us to act, but more often than we would like, we choose to do what we want instead. God says to love our neighbors, we want them to love us first. God asks us to honor our parents, but often we choose to be ornery and grumpy instead. God tells us to put Him first but there are so many other things to pay attention to that we can altogether forget about God in our daily life.

If you picture our sin as mud it is like we are splattering it all over the place. A little rudeness here, a touch of naughty words there, lets add a splash of anger all over the place. Our sins make our lives a mess.

And there is nothing that we can do to clean up the mess. No amount of “I’m sorry,” or kind works can clean up our mess.

But with Jesus there is forgiveness.

Forgiveness is erasing our sins perfectly. It is like a super cleaner that wipes clean all the bad that we have done. And it is only possible through Jesus.

This is what God’s people need. This is what the wait for a messiah was all about. Waiting for God to come down and save us. Jesus did all of this by living a sin-free life, and then dying on the cross. Advent is waiting for the One who makes us clean from our sin.

PRAYER: Dear God. Thank you for Jesus, and for the forgiveness that comes only from Him. In Jesus’ name we pray, AMEN.

ACTIVITY: What is the biggest mess you have ever made? Did you need help to clean it up?

Take a few minutes to find a mess in your house and work together as a family to clean it up.