The story of Advent is a story of place. The Creator became part of the creation as a human person in real space and time. There is an actual spot on the map where He arrived. There are roads He walked upon, houses He lived in, cities He visited, towns He worked in. We sense the “sacred” in these because Jesus was there; we are a visited people living on a visited planet. Thus, the Incarnation itself is an invitation to invite Jesus into every space—to set it apart—to make it sacred.

Some spaces are sacred because of what God did there and some spaces are sacred because of how we engage them. Each week and Christmas Eve, we will take a look into a different sacred place in our lives that was first found in the Christmas story. They are: Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Egypt, Nazareth and The Road. In a metaphorical sense, we each have a Bethlehem story where Jesus shows up—and a story about The Road which got us there. It’s the same with the other sacred places. Here’s hoping this year’s Advent Guide will bring folks closer to the One who “became flesh and made His dwelling among us” (John 1:14)