Elained Appelbee of All Saints Church Highfield, writes

Advent — a time for wreaths, candles and calendars, a happy anticipation of celebrating Christ’s birth. For Christians it is also a reminder to direct their hearts and minds to await Christ’s second coming at the end of time.

Advent Bible readings are apocalyptic, all about the end times when there will be terrible signs before Jesus returns. They read like the six o’clock news: wars, famine, floods and earthquakes.

One of the special prayers for this season begins “Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and to put on the armour of light . . .’ Heavy duty stuff. What is this supposed to mean for us?

While I might be prepared to live as well as I can by attempting to cast off the works of darkness, putting on the armour of light is scary. It exposes me to all the tremendous possibilities of what God can do through me and the rest of humanity. Throughout history God has achieved amazing things through the actions of ordinary individuals and communities who are willing to heal and right injustices.

One of the things that captivates me about the Christian faith is its human scale — ordinary men who become extraordinary disciples, ordinary women who take risks and witness a resurrection. Advent reminds us that there is another side to that faith. A side concerned with things on a universal scale. A God who encompasses time and space — all that is evil and good; a God who makes whole all that is broken; a God who takes our breath away.

It is Jesus, born a baby to live a human life, who makes the bridge between the smallness of our humanity and immensity of God’s love and power. It is through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit that we are drawn into that immense, eternal love. It is through the Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit that our small offerings and actions can make the universe tremble.