Advent comes from the Latin word adventus, which means “arrival.” For hundreds of years, followers of Jesus have set aside the four weeks leading up to Christmas as a meaningful season of celebration and anticipation of the arrival of Jesus.

In celebration, we remember the earnest expectations and fervent prayers of faithful saints of old who longed for the coming of their Messiah to rescue them from Sin and all its cronies. Humanity called upon the name of the Lord, and God answered. He arrived living and breathing and walking among us.

In anticipation, we remember that Jesus arrived in Bethlehem, and He will arrive again—Jesus is coming back. At His first coming, the future kingdom of God burst into the present. Our spiritual enemies were disarmed. Yet our world is not what it will be as we await the reign of our good king. We live in the “already but not yet” of Jesus’ kingdom. At Advent, we give voice to “kingdom come” prayers of our own— looking expectantly for Jesus’ return.