My new Advent series, The Dawn Before the Light, starts where Luke starts. Before heaven opens over Bethlehem, Luke invites us to something quieter and older.

He starts the story with Luke 1 and we are invited to:

Pay attention.

Read slowly.

Read deeply.

Remember what God has already done.

Christian faith is built on truth. On a fact. On a real story handed down by real witnesses to real people, people who lived and ate and prayed and worked and wondered if God remembered them.

This is why we shouldn’t sprint past Advent. When life gets noisy, the temptation is always to charge ahead to the celebration. But Luke won’t let us do that. He teaches us that the way to be ready for the miracle is to prepare the mind before we race to the manger.