December 21st, 2025
by Lars Dahl
by Lars Dahl
There's something profound about watching candles being lit one by one during the Advent season. Each flame represents more than just a ritual or tradition; it tells a story of spiritual progression that leads us directly to the heart of Christmas.
The four candles of Advent, hope, peace, joy, and love, aren't random selections. They follow a divine order, each one building upon the previous, creating a pathway that leads us to understand the incredible gift God gave humanity when He sent His Son into the world.
Hope: Where Everything Begins
Hope is the first candle lit, and for good reason. It represents the starting point of our spiritual journey. But biblical hope isn't wishful thinking or crossing our fingers that things might work out. It's something far more substantial and anchored.
Biblical hope is a confident expectation in what God is going to do. It's looking forward with certainty, not because we're optimistic people, but because we know the character of God. Hope is forward-facing, future-oriented, and absolutely essential for everything that follows.
Without hope, we have nothing to build upon. Without hope, the other candles cannot be lit. It's the foundation that makes everything else possible.
Peace: Living in the Present Moment
Once hope takes root in our hearts, peace becomes possible. But here's where we need to clear up a common misconception: peace is not the absence of trouble.
How many of us have waited for circumstances to settle down before we could experience peace? How many times have we thought, "Once this problem is solved, then I'll have peace"? That's not biblical peace.
True peace, the peace that comes from Christ, exists regardless of our external circumstances. It's the ability to sit in the moment, whatever that moment contains, and rest in the knowledge that God is sovereign and good.
Peace resides in the present. It doesn't wait for tomorrow's solutions or yesterday's regrets. It lives right here, right now, because the source of that peace, Jesus Christ, is with us in every moment.
Joy: The Overflow of a Peaceful Heart
Joy flows naturally from peace. When we have peace with God and the peace of God, joy becomes possible even in difficult seasons.
But let's be honest: maintaining joy isn't always easy. We're human beings, and life has a way of draining our joy reserves. There are moments when we lose sight of hope, when peace seems distant, and when joy feels impossible.
This is the reality of the Christian walk. We don't pretend to have it all together all the time. What matters is that we remember the source. When we return to Christ, when we reconnect with the One who is our hope, peace, and joy, these characteristics can be restored in our hearts.
Joy comes from the heart. It's not dependent on circumstances, though circumstances certainly affect us. Joy is a deeper current running beneath the surface of our daily experiences, anchored in the unchanging nature of God.
Love: The Foundation and the Fulfillment
The final candle represents love, and this is where everything comes together. Love is both foundational and the fulfillment of God's promises to humanity.
Here's something remarkable: even people who don't believe in Jesus Christ have the capacity to love. How is that possible? Because God created them. Every human being bears the image of God, and part of that image is the capacity to love and be loved.
But God's love goes far beyond human affection or warm feelings. God's love is active, intentional, and sometimes disruptive. We often think of love as comfortable—like a warm bowl of oatmeal on a freezing morning. While love can certainly be comforting, it's also much more than that.
God's love has the power to interrupt our lives completely. Just ask Mary.
When Love Interrupts an Ordinary Life
Mary was an ordinary young woman living in an ordinary town. She wasn't looking for a miracle. She wasn't seeking to be part of history. She was living her life when Gabriel appeared with a message from God: she would bear a child, and His name would be Jesus.
Love came to visit mankind in human form, beginning with the interruption of one woman's ordinary existence.
The apostle John captures this beautifully: "In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:9-10).
Propitiation, that's a big theological word that means Jesus took our place. We deserve punishment for our wrongs, but Jesus absorbed that punishment for us. Why? Because He loves us. That's the entire reason He was born.
Love on Purpose
John 3:16 tells us, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." And Romans 5:8 adds, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
God could have announced His love with thunder and armies. He could have made royal proclamations or displayed His power in overwhelming ways. Instead, He chose to show His love through a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
The mother was ordinary. The earthly father was ordinary. The town was small and insignificant. The first witnesses were smelly shepherds working the night shift in a field.
What does this tell us? It tells us that God's love came small so no one would be afraid to approach Him. This wasn't weakness; it was love on purpose.
The Chronology of Christmas
The story of Jesus' birth was loud and quiet, orderly and chaotic, expected and surprising, all at once. Angels announced His arrival with glorious proclamations, yet He was born in the humblest of circumstances. Prophecies foretold His coming for centuries, yet His arrival caught most people completely off guard.
This is how God works. His perfect love doesn't always look like what we expect, but it's always exactly what we need.
As we light these four candles this Christmas season, we're reminded that hope leads to peace, peace produces joy, and all of it flows from and leads back to love—the love of God demonstrated through Jesus Christ.
This Christmas, may we not just admire the story from a distance, but may we let it interrupt our lives the way it interrupted Mary's. May we experience the hope that anchors us, the peace that sustains us, the joy that fills us, and the love that transforms us.
Because that's what Christmas is really about: God's perfect love coming to us in the most unexpected, beautiful, and accessible way possible, through a baby in a manger who would grow up to be our Savior.
The four candles of Advent, hope, peace, joy, and love, aren't random selections. They follow a divine order, each one building upon the previous, creating a pathway that leads us to understand the incredible gift God gave humanity when He sent His Son into the world.
Hope: Where Everything Begins
Hope is the first candle lit, and for good reason. It represents the starting point of our spiritual journey. But biblical hope isn't wishful thinking or crossing our fingers that things might work out. It's something far more substantial and anchored.
Biblical hope is a confident expectation in what God is going to do. It's looking forward with certainty, not because we're optimistic people, but because we know the character of God. Hope is forward-facing, future-oriented, and absolutely essential for everything that follows.
Without hope, we have nothing to build upon. Without hope, the other candles cannot be lit. It's the foundation that makes everything else possible.
Peace: Living in the Present Moment
Once hope takes root in our hearts, peace becomes possible. But here's where we need to clear up a common misconception: peace is not the absence of trouble.
How many of us have waited for circumstances to settle down before we could experience peace? How many times have we thought, "Once this problem is solved, then I'll have peace"? That's not biblical peace.
True peace, the peace that comes from Christ, exists regardless of our external circumstances. It's the ability to sit in the moment, whatever that moment contains, and rest in the knowledge that God is sovereign and good.
Peace resides in the present. It doesn't wait for tomorrow's solutions or yesterday's regrets. It lives right here, right now, because the source of that peace, Jesus Christ, is with us in every moment.
Joy: The Overflow of a Peaceful Heart
Joy flows naturally from peace. When we have peace with God and the peace of God, joy becomes possible even in difficult seasons.
But let's be honest: maintaining joy isn't always easy. We're human beings, and life has a way of draining our joy reserves. There are moments when we lose sight of hope, when peace seems distant, and when joy feels impossible.
This is the reality of the Christian walk. We don't pretend to have it all together all the time. What matters is that we remember the source. When we return to Christ, when we reconnect with the One who is our hope, peace, and joy, these characteristics can be restored in our hearts.
Joy comes from the heart. It's not dependent on circumstances, though circumstances certainly affect us. Joy is a deeper current running beneath the surface of our daily experiences, anchored in the unchanging nature of God.
Love: The Foundation and the Fulfillment
The final candle represents love, and this is where everything comes together. Love is both foundational and the fulfillment of God's promises to humanity.
Here's something remarkable: even people who don't believe in Jesus Christ have the capacity to love. How is that possible? Because God created them. Every human being bears the image of God, and part of that image is the capacity to love and be loved.
But God's love goes far beyond human affection or warm feelings. God's love is active, intentional, and sometimes disruptive. We often think of love as comfortable—like a warm bowl of oatmeal on a freezing morning. While love can certainly be comforting, it's also much more than that.
God's love has the power to interrupt our lives completely. Just ask Mary.
When Love Interrupts an Ordinary Life
Mary was an ordinary young woman living in an ordinary town. She wasn't looking for a miracle. She wasn't seeking to be part of history. She was living her life when Gabriel appeared with a message from God: she would bear a child, and His name would be Jesus.
Love came to visit mankind in human form, beginning with the interruption of one woman's ordinary existence.
The apostle John captures this beautifully: "In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:9-10).
Propitiation, that's a big theological word that means Jesus took our place. We deserve punishment for our wrongs, but Jesus absorbed that punishment for us. Why? Because He loves us. That's the entire reason He was born.
Love on Purpose
John 3:16 tells us, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." And Romans 5:8 adds, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
God could have announced His love with thunder and armies. He could have made royal proclamations or displayed His power in overwhelming ways. Instead, He chose to show His love through a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
The mother was ordinary. The earthly father was ordinary. The town was small and insignificant. The first witnesses were smelly shepherds working the night shift in a field.
What does this tell us? It tells us that God's love came small so no one would be afraid to approach Him. This wasn't weakness; it was love on purpose.
The Chronology of Christmas
The story of Jesus' birth was loud and quiet, orderly and chaotic, expected and surprising, all at once. Angels announced His arrival with glorious proclamations, yet He was born in the humblest of circumstances. Prophecies foretold His coming for centuries, yet His arrival caught most people completely off guard.
This is how God works. His perfect love doesn't always look like what we expect, but it's always exactly what we need.
As we light these four candles this Christmas season, we're reminded that hope leads to peace, peace produces joy, and all of it flows from and leads back to love—the love of God demonstrated through Jesus Christ.
This Christmas, may we not just admire the story from a distance, but may we let it interrupt our lives the way it interrupted Mary's. May we experience the hope that anchors us, the peace that sustains us, the joy that fills us, and the love that transforms us.
Because that's what Christmas is really about: God's perfect love coming to us in the most unexpected, beautiful, and accessible way possible, through a baby in a manger who would grow up to be our Savior.
Lars Dahl
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