Advent 2025: Anticipation

Photo by Tristen Whitman

Most of us have experienced the growing sense of excitement that precedes the birth of a baby. A sense of expectancy builds and builds and builds as the impending due date draws near.

We all help in various ways to prepare for a baby’s entrance into the world. I do not have children of my own, but I have thrown many baby showers, consulted registries, and gifted lots of new babies with items like onesies, tiny booties, teething rings, diapers, stuffed animals, Good Night Moon, and soft swaddles.

Advent is a rhythmic reminder to get ready, to make room in our bustling lives and weary hearts to retell the story of the birth of Jesus as if telling it for the very first time.

So much hinges on the birth of this particular baby boy, born to a particular young woman who is betrothed to a particular man, amid particularly strange and mysterious circumstances, in a particular location, at a particular moment in time.

This particular old, old story is integral to and embedded in the true story of the whole world and is cause for celebration.

Advent beckons us to make space for and to anticipate afresh the wonder of this newborn King.

So, over the next four weeks, beginning on November 30th, I plan to post four devotional prompts designed to provoke a sense of expectation-as much for me as for you. Subscribe to casmonaco.com to gain access, each week, to a free, short, downloadable guide designed for personal reflection.