Advent Visualized Dec. 24

 I woke up this morning at 5:40 to strong rain. I live in an area where rain is very common; we have droughts, but rarely; most of the time we have the opposite problem, floods. I like rain and the sounds of it, unless one has a roof that leaks. Rain in an arid Middle Eastern climate is refreshing. Advent is about refreshing, or, that God is sending us refreshing through Advent. Acts 3:19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, Like the word "entertain, "which has come to mean "put on a show," "refresh" has been paired with "refreshments" and made less vital than in Biblical times. Only when one has been parched and beaten down by a noonday sun can one understand true refreshing.  

Some of he people of Jesus' time, the shepherds, Anna, and Simeon, knew they needed that refreshing. Some did not. Some didn't care. The three responses today, still.