Advent, Annunciation and Angels #AtoZChallenge

This year my A to Z challenge theme is Christmas, a major festival in the Christian Church. Another major festival is Easter, which I wrote about for the A to Z Challenge in 2020.

The Christmas season is one of feasting. It is preceded by a season of preparation known as Advent. Advent is a word derived from Latin. It means the arrival of an important person. In Advent Christians remember the arrival of Jesus on earth as a baby and look forward to his second coming. Matthew 24:30-31

Annunciation is another word with its origins in Latin. It means to proclaim or announce someone’s arrival. In the story of Advent and Christmas the Annunciation was the appearance of the Angel Gabriel to Mary. The angel announced that Mary would give birth to a son named Jesus, whose kingdom would never end. The story may be found in Luke 1:26-38

The whole Christmas story could be told in this post by focussing on the part angels played in it. The angel of the Lord appeared to Zechariah in the temple and foretold the birth of John the baptiser, who was to prepare the way for the Messiah. Luke 1:5-23

An Angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife. Matthew 1:18-24

Angels announced the birth of the Messiah (the Christ) to shepherds Luke 2:8-15

In my A to Z in 2020 my post for A was Angels. Angels are messengers from God. In the Christmas story every appearance of one or more angels was an annunciation.

The Angel of the Lord’s annunciation was to Zechariah, the Angel Gabriel’s to Mary and an angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds with another annunciation. Then the shepherds saw a large number of angels and heard them praising God.

Another post I wrote in 2015 describes what Advent can be like for people involved with music in the Church.

Angels from the realms of glory is a popular carol about these topics.

While this year’s A to Z badges by Anjela Curtis honour the late Jeremy Hawkins, I hope that my posts about Christmas honour Jesus Christ, ‘who was and is and is to come’. Revelation 1:4