Tonight I met up with my friend to start planning this year’s Advent by Candlelight program. Advent by Candlelight is a night at the beginning of December when the ladies of our church decorate the auditorium with candles and bring in the best kinds of Christmas food to share, potluck style. But before we eat, we get quiet. We read God’s Word, listen to a series of Advent-themed devotions, sing carols, and bow our hearts in prayer. Advent by Candlelight is like a deep, cleansing, centering breath before heading into Christmas. The evening is about getting our hearts ready for Christmas, as well as celebrating together.

My friend plans it every year, and last year she dragged me into it, too. Just kidding. I’m excited to help write the program again this year. I really, really am. So we got together tonight to decide on a theme.

You know what struck me? It’s not hard to come up with ideas, it’s hard to narrow it down to just one. The enormous, complex, awesome, mind-blowing thing that is Christmas is hard to distill into a 45 minute program. There are so many possible themes, so much history, so many angles (and angels), so many players involved. There is so much to talk about, so much ground to cover.

And Christmas is just one of the stories in the Bible, just one piece of our salvation. A big piece, yes, but just one. It makes me think of that verse at the end of John:

“Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”

You know what? That’s one of my favorite verses of the Bible. Always has been. It’s a plain statement with such reverb. I love how John just calls out at the end of his book, “Hey. There’s so much more to say, but I just can’t do it. No one could.”

So often I complain about how I don’t know enough about life or God or “his plan for my life” or “how this will all work out.” I focus on the idea of scarcity, and it makes me shrivel up with worry and fear. I complain that God hasn’t given me enough answers for my life, but I’m so wrong about that. He has given me so very much to know in his Word. Creation. Salvation. Grace. Forgiveness. Eternal life. Things I couldn’t get my mind around no matter how much I thought about them. In fact, the more I think about these things, the more amazing they become to me. Abundance produces more abundance.

It’s true what “they” say. It’s about my attitude. It’s about what I focus on. It’s about what I choose to see or not see. God invites me every day to wake up and see the abundance of Him: his forgiveness that stretches from east to west, his love that knows no depth or height, his mercies new every morning, his presence that has no beginning or end. This mighty, mighty abundance. His mighty, mighty abundance.

It makes an ordinary day like September 25th feel a lot like December 25th.