Daily Bible Reading Plans to help you read and understand God’s Word

Scripture Reading: Colossians 1:5

The thing about Christmas is that it shows up right in the middle of real life.

When I think of the Advent season in future tense, I picture a magical, set-apart time when everything slows and settles, allowing us to focus on togetherness, gratitude, and celebration. Then December arrives, and underneath the festivities and twinkle lights, a longing lingers. The difficult parts of life are still difficult. Strained relationships are still strained. The things we hoped would be different by now are mostly still the same.

Advent rarely looks or feels the way we wish it would, and our hearts would sink into despair but for the truth: This ordinary, in-process life is precisely where God meant to meet us.

The tidings of comfort and joy that we sing about are comforting and joyful because Christmas finds us in the throes of everyday life. Christ comes to bring light and life to us right where we are.

Christmas in the hospital.
Christmas in the wake of grief.
Christmas in the pile of past due bills.
Christmas in the fatigue of family strife.
Christmas in the uncertainty of what’s next.

Jesus is God who came to dwell with us, here in the midst of our angst and messiness and sickness and pride. Here in our busy schedules and aching bodies and tired hearts. Here in the world He created and loves and is committed to redeeming.

The baby in the manger is not the start of the story. Jesus’s birth happened in the midst of God’s ongoing pursuit of His people and His plan to bring them back into the glory of His presence forever.

This year’s Advent reading plan approaches the Christmas story from this point of view, starting with the creation in Genesis and walking through traditional passages of the season as they unfold in Scripture. Alongside God’s people in the Old Testament, we’ll feel the ache for the promised Messiah and the anticipation of His coming. We’ll watch in awe when God sends His Son into the world, at just the right time, to save the world through Him. And we will look with hope to the second advent—His promised return.

As you enter this Advent season, lay down your heavy load, and lean into the comfort of Christ. He is “the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). He is the light who “shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it” (v.5). Our longings will linger until Christ comes again, but there is deep joy offered to us—right where we are—in the love and mercy of Jesus. May every reading in this reading plan lead you into the presence of the God who came near.

Written by Amanda Bible Williams