Many people enjoy marking the days of Advent with an Advent calendar -- opening a door or window to find a special treat. A similar tradition is to carve out a time of reflection each day. You can go "old school" with a book of daily Advent reflections or sign up for a daily email. Sources for such reflections are easy to find online. Two you might particularly want to consider are:
The Diocese of New Westminster's 2019 Advent Resource. Written by Archbishop Melissa Skelton and spiritual directors within our diocese, "Each day will include a selected image, hymn, or poem that evokes the actions of Advent: waiting, longing, anticipating, expecting, and preparing. The art is a means for awakening our imaginations to renew our journey through Advent once more." Find it and sign up for the daily email on the dicoesan website.
The Primate's World Relief and Development Fund always offers reflections on Advent tied to their work around the world. This year the themes include peace and reconciliation, hope and creation care, joy and empowering women, and love and accompanying refugees. Laurel Dykstra, John Hannen, Marion Taylor, and
Mary Jo Leddy delve into the scriptural readings for Advent and connect them to the weekly theme of Advent, and the work of PWRDF. The resource is available as a download (after November 28, 2019) or subscribe to receive a reflection in your email inbox every day of Advent until Christmas morning. The details are here.
Prefer a book you can hold in your hands? Pastor Ruth is recommending Low: An Honest Advent Devotional by John Pavlovitz. The publisher says, "In this honest Advent devotional, best-selling progressive Christian author John Pavlovitz reminds us that God came to meet us in the low places of our lives — and that Jesus continues to come low this Advent season: when we live humbly, when we seek forgiveness, in our grief and suffering, when we act on behalf of someone else, when we pray. As we walk the road of Advent, Jesus
reminds us the invitation is not to escape this world to an elevated Heaven somewhere else, but to bring Heaven down. 'God with us' is Jesus, getting low. Each devotional includes a scripture and Advent reflection on Jesus meeting us on the ground, in the grit."