The ultimate goal of our devotion to the life of Jesus during Advent and at all times is to see clearly enough to evoke the response of love and worship that He is worthy of. We will be touched, encouraged, and transformed as we look upon Him, but we turn our eyes toward the accounts of His birth chiefly for His sake. The only reasonable response to the astonishing mystery of the Incarnation is to laud the One who came so near. To treat the narratives of His entrance into the world as a common, familiar thing does not befit the glory of who He is and what He did. The primary challenge of Advent, therefore, is not for us to realize what we are missing out on by not celebrating it but to realize how wrong it is that a host of things seem more appealing to our attention than pondering the tale of how God took on flesh. Advent does not need a marketing campaign to bolster its prominence by convincing busy American Christians of all the ways they would benefit if they would just slow down and meditate on Jesus as a baby. Our thinking needs to move in the opposite direction. If we go to Bethlehem looking only for something that will apply to us or give our emotions a lift, it likely we will find little more than the sound of another baby crying. Yet if, like the wise men, we are seeking a King to worship then surely our journey will not be in vain.
