Expecting the Unexpected: An Advent Devotional Guide

A high unemployment rate, tensions and wars around the world, soaring gas prices, job stress…Are today's anxieties shrinking your Christmas spirit, your sense of joy, your purpose, your song?

This Advent, expect the unexpected.

Reconnect with the Christmas story, the arrival of Christ's biblical message of hope and healing for this world.

Expecting the Unexpected is a spiritual feast for the mind and imagination. Use it each day of the four-week Advent season. Open it and find:

"I often wonder how we can decorate our tree, haul out the nativity set, sing 'Away in a Manger' once or twice, pack it all away again, and think we have celebrated Christmas adequately," writes Meeks. "The season holds so much more for us…God's work through Jesus Christ only begins in the manger. Our joy in God's gift of Jesus to us should be part of our lives every day."

With Meeks as your companion and guide, reclaim excitement and refreshment. Expect Christ's reign in your life--today.

Blair Gilmer Meeks writes and lectures in the areas of worship and preaching. From 1991 - 1998 she was editor of Liturgy, the quarterly journal of The Liturgical Conference and associate editor of Homily Service, a monthly ecumenical journal for preachers. Meeks also served as an acting coach in the chancel drama program at the Center for Arts and Religion, Wesley Theological Seminary, and a teacher in adult education programs.