Philippa Strachan reflects on the yearly tug between longing for a quiet, Christ-centred Advent and the whirlwind that tends to sweep us away. She offers a fresh invitation to consider how Jesus would walk through our December with grace, presence, and peace.
I don’t know about you, but every year I enter Advent with the best intentions — determined to slow down, cherish the season, and stay centred on the One we’re actually celebrating. Yet so often the reality looks different. I overschedule, overindulge, and overspend (three of our four birthdays also fall in December, which doesn’t help!). By January I usually feel like I need a holiday…just to recover from the holidays.
But this year, I’m craving something different. I’ve found myself thinking about how Jesus would approach this season. He loved a celebration, he was often found around tables, sharing meals, and fully present with the people in front of him. Yet I’m not sure he’d approach December in quite the way I have in the past.
John Mark Comer reframes the old “What would Jesus do?” question as: What would Jesus do if he were me? And so, this Advent, I’m asking myself: What would Jesus do (or not do) if he were living my life, with my family, my responsibilities, in my December?
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I think he would celebrate generously, yes, but he would move at the pace of grace.
I think he would celebrate generously, yes, but he would move at the pace of grace. And instead of fixating on the gifts under the tree, I imagine he would focus on how to be a gift to the people around him. He would make space to be with his Father, knowing that the calm and clarity of those moments would shape everything else. This is the posture my family is trying to embrace this year - slowing down enough to stay close to him, so that we might arrive at 2026, not drained and overwhelmed, but with a sense of peace and closeness to God.
All this is why Still Waters has created this Advent devotional, as an invitation to step out of the rush and to embrace a gentler pace: to remember Jesus, and to process the year with him, while looking forward to the next. Our hope is that it gives our readers room to breathe, reflect, and rediscover the quiet wonder of this season. A little glimpse of it is below…
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Resisting Hurry and Embracing Reflection: The Heart of Advent
As 2025 draws to a close, we want to invite you into a slower, deeper kind of Advent – one that helps you pause long enough to notice where you actually are (not where you think you should be). This devotional is designed to guide you into reflection: to look back honestly, to pay attention to your present reality, and to lift your eyes toward the future God is drawing you into in 2026 and beyond. Our prayer is that through this process, Christmas will open itself to you in a more profound way than it has in years past – less familiar, more holy; less hurried, more deeply felt.
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You might remember that in A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge is forced – quite dramatically – into a journey through his past, present, and future. He is confronted, shaken awake, pulled into uncomfortable clarity for the sake of transformation. Advent offers us something similar, though far gentler. While Scrooge needed ghosts to drag him through time, we are invited to walk these same paths willingly, reflectively, and with the companionship of the Holy Spirit.
The Christian story has always been a story of time – promises made, promises kept, promises yet to be fulfilled. That is why Advent is so rich: it gathers the whole sweep of God’s redemptive timeline into a single season. And so, like Scrooge, but without the terror or the midnight visitations, we take a journey into Christmas past, Christmas present, and Christmas future.
Christmas Past — What has your year revealed about waiting, longing, and God’s faithfulness?
Advent begins with memory – entering the ancient longing of Israel, a people described in Isaiah as “walking in darkness,” waiting for “a great light.” Their waiting was an active hope, engaging in the difficulties of the present while trusting that God had a better future for them. And in many ways, their story mirrors our own.
As you look back on 2025, where have you been waiting? Where did you feel in the dark, unsure, longing for God to break through? Advent encourages you not to rush past these questions. Instead, sit in them with honesty. For the same God who fulfilled His promises to Israel – sending a child born of a virgin, “Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14), the “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6–7) – has been faithful to you too. “They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength” (Isa. 40:31).
This is the first step of Advent reflection: to look back not with regret, but with honesty and recognition – observing where God has carried you, and remembering that he is not done with you yet.
Reflect (sample questions from the complete devotional)
What has surprised you most this year?
What has brought you genuine joy or peace?
What did you discover or rediscover about God this year?
Where did you see God at work?
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www.stillwatersjersey.co.uk/advent
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