Advent Devotional by Jim Branch

Jim Branch November 19, 2017

Many of you are familiar with “The Blue Book” and have loved reading Jim Branch’s writings. Jim was on staff with Young Life for almost twenty years and now directs a ministry of spiritual nurture in Knoxville, TN. Jim has also written a book called, “Watch and Wait,” specifically for the season of Advent. This year Advent begins on Sunday, Dec. 3rd.

Purchase a copy here: Watch and Wait: A Guide for Advent and Christmas.

For most of my Christian life I was unaware of the beautiful way the story of faith retells itself each year through the church liturgical calendar. How each and every year through its feasts and fasts, its celebrations and remembrances, the incredible story of God’s extravagant love for his people is lived out again and anew by the community of faith. It is an ancient dance that has been done by fellow pilgrims throughout the centuries, offering an invitation to us all to journey with Christ, and the people of God, into a more intimate and vibrant relationship with the One who made us for himself. It is an invitation for each of us to enter into his story; to live each season in a way that gives us a deeper love for, and a stronger faith in, the God who dreamt us into being. 


The first step in this journey is the season of Advent, the season of watching and waiting for Christ to be born among us and within us. It is the season where we get in touch with our deep longing for God to show up in our lives and in our word. After all, he is, and has always been, the God who comes. Ours is just to pay careful attention to the how and the where and the when of that coming.” 

– Jim Branch

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