Daily Meditations for Advent 2025
Another year, another migration around the sun for which we assign millennial numbers, will soon be reaching its finale. Did 2025 afford you a wealth of meaningful and rewarding experiences or will it settle into your memory as a time of little account? Maybe it will just disappear in your mental bin of forgotten moments. Have the past twelve months afforded you many meaningful interactions with people whom you love, respect and admire? Or was it a season of “same old/same old” which you endured more than enjoyed? As our clocks and calendars move us inexorably to the culmination of another year, the Christian world turns its sights both forward and heavenward. Advent inspires believers to look ahead as well as look above for the workings of God in an age which most of us find frustrating at best and down-right foreboding at worst.
No matter how concerning these times may be, my spirits never fail to perk up when I reach the last few months of any year, no matter how troubling were its news stories or personal struggles. Autumn’s colorful mosaic of gold, red, and yellow leaves rustling and letting go at the touch of cool breezes helps to fuel my attitudinal uptick. So is the prospect of family and food and fellowship that the “holidays” foist upon us. Even though December brings with it a season of floral dormancy and frigid temps, it nonetheless provides us with a sensory overload that ushers out the old and tired year with a grand finale that is much more bang than whimper. One need not be a small child to get caught up in all the excitement, which, if truth be told, does do something to each of us that is spiritually uplifting. Why else do our often half-empty churches find it necessary to add seating to accommodate the pilgrims who predictably show up, en masse, to worship on the eve of Christ’s birth? I suspect it is much more than a tradition that guilt shames us to keep. It is, dare I say it, even stronger than family obligation. There is something about that night, that timeless moment in time, that touches us in a way unlike any others.
As I get ready for Christmas 2025, I find myself thinking out loud about what this season of anticipation and hope means to me and what I sense it may mean to others. It is in that spirit that I have written and will be publishing daily devotional reflections on the Advent season. Given my deeply felt love for the music of this time of year I have decided to base each of the 26 essays—one for each day of Advent and one for Christmas day too—on the music that has been written, and is often sung, in churches leading up to December 25. I trust that these ruminations may strike a resonant chord within you, providing you with a measure of inspiration and perhaps a few “food for thought” morsels as you read them and listen to the musical performances that bring them to life. Most of all I hope that each of these devotional pieces will add something good and worthwhile to your life, helping you to move from this year into what, in God’s keeping, lies ahead for all of us in 2026.
I have compiled these daily meditations in four weekly BLOGS covering the four weeks of Advent. You may want to read one week’s worth at a time, or revisit them in a daily devotional routine. Each of these musically inspired reflections is identified by textual author(s) and composers of the tunes to which they are most commonly sung. Where possible I consider the scriptural reference that inspired its writing. Thanks to the high tech resources available to us via YouTube, I have also provided a link to an audio-visual recording of that day’s musical selection for those who may find it meaningful to hear it in worship or performance. Should any of the links take you to ad intro, please ride it out or skip it as directed. Then listen to the wonder of melody, harmony and rhythm bringing each hymn or carol to life.
I will post a new week of meditations for Advent 2025 each Thursday, all of which can be accessed, read and reread by using the drop down menu under All Posts at the top of the home page for this website, arranged in publication order from most recently published to oldest.