I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple. The messenger of

the covenant whom you desire will come, says the Lord God Almighty. But who can endure the day of his coming?

Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire and a launderer's soap.

He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.

He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver.

Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness.

And the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem

will be acceptable to the Lord, as in the days gone by, as in the former years. This is the

word of the Lord. Thanks for God. Thanks, Bill. It's the most wonderful time of the year for most of us.

I really love Advent, I really love Christmas, and most of my memories of the holidays are fun.

My brothers and I sneaking into our parents' room on Christmas

morning with some pre-arranged Christmas song that we would startlingly sing them awake

to tell them it was time to unwrap presents. To that one time that our family gift was a

refurbished moped that my brothers and I, probably too young to do something like this, would

take turns driving around to the neighborhood, to all of the extended family gatherings every year at my grandma's house with good food and gift

exchanges. And yet, I know that many of us are showing up to this season with dread. Advent is the

awkward time of the year when things like hope and peace and joy come easily and feel nostalgic to some of us.

But for others, hope and peace and joy feel like a bloody knuckled fight that you're just trying to get through.

It's the season where you remember that everyone else has what you don't.

Enough money to buy presents, extended family with whom to celebrate.

A good job, a nice home, a spouse, a child.

People whose lives seem so put together, it makes you wonder what they could possibly

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