The Christmas season presents an occasion when nearly everyone is either practicing or surrounded by Christmas festivity. Tim Keller writes in his book Hidden Christmas: The Surprising Truth Behind the Birth of Christ, “Every year our increasingly secular Western society becomes more unaware of its own historical roots, many of which are fundamentals of the Christian faith. Yet once a year at Christmas these basic truths become a bit more accessible to an enormous audience . . . when our secular society and the Christian church are, to a degree, thinking about the same thing.”

Sharing and reading the Advent stories is a great way to connect over something spiritually meaningful. Humble narratives, angelic encounters, bold poems, unlikely heroes, the foreshadowing of heartbreak and hope… What is it about these few pages of ancient literature that has created such a powerful legacy?