December 2

Then the Lord told him, “I AM the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession.” 

But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?” Genesis 15:7-9,22

According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary a covenant is an agreement to undertake a contract, guarantee, promise or to commit oneself to the agreement. Abraham asked a very simple question: how can I be sure? And God answered him with a promise for eternity. All Abraham had to do was obey.

This covenant was all on God’s shoulders. In the Old Testament times, when a covenant was made between two parties, the blood of the sacrificed animals was drained into a basin. The men making the covenant would then remove their sandals and walk through this blood, declaring that they would keep this covenant with the cost of their own life. This was much more than signing your name on the bottom of a contract. This was giving your life to fulfill this contract. As you read further into today’s scripture, notice that God required Abraham to sacrifice five specific animals. After this was done, God passed through the halves of the carcasses as a smoking fire pot and flaming torch, fulfilling both sides of the covenant. At that time God was saying, “I’m giving you this land, but I’m also giving you so much more. I’m giving you part of Me, I’m giving you your Savior.”

Father, thank You for seeing my need and providing me with so much more. Thank You for Your gift of Your Son. Help me to treasure this gift with my life. Amen.

Second-Day Activities

Do you have a covenant with God? If you are His child you do, and it’s signed in the blood of Jesus. He came into our world for one purpose: to redeem us so that we might come into His world. During this season think often of this precious baby. Hold Him close to your heart, and thank God for His gift. Know this gift is to be shared. Share it in a hug, a smile, a pat on the back. Let God see you enjoying His gift.

Today take out the stable from the storage box of your nativity set if you have one. Place it in its usual place, ready it for the occupants. For those with children, you might want to make an advent construction-paper garland. Choose different color strips of construction paper, and write an activity on each day. Something easy and not expensive. Loop them together, making an old-fashioned garland. Then each day take off one of the strips, and do the activity with your children. You can take pictures and work each day into a scrapbook page, building a family memory for years to come. Ideas for this can be making Christmas cards for your children to send, baking cookies, going Christmas caroling, whatever you can imagine.