Third Week of Advent

    The following image was taken about a year ago, and it has been sitting in the archived pictures hoping I would find and appropriate time to use it. That time has come the third week of Advent!  The above oil painting is a family heirloom from the Krettek family, and is a recreation of a section of one of Raphael's masterpieces. The painting is Madonna and Child, which hangs in a lovely church in a small town here in Iowa. What a beautiful reminder of what advent is about, and the waiting and anticipation of our beloved Savior.
     Lately, I've been reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Love Letters From Cell 92, written during his imprisonment by the Nazi regime. In his letters,  I find  many reasons why Advent is that special time of the year, for me, that has been unspoiled by the commercialism of Christmas.  His quote below sums up the true meaning of this season. I hope you agree.

     “Dear Maria—I think that we’re going to have an exceptionally good Christmas. . . I used to be very fond of thinking up and giving presents, but now that we have nothing to give, the gift God gave us in the birth of Christ will seem all the more glorious: the emptier our hands, the better we understand. . . The poorer our quarters, the more clearly we perceive that our hearts should be Christ’s home on earth.”  Letters from Cell 92.