2025 Advent Devotion: Day 20

Saturday, December 20

2 Samuel 7:23-29; John 3:31-36

One of the things that I love about winter is the snow. Growing up in the mountains of western North Carolina, I got to see a lot of snow. As a child and even now, I love waiting for snow with excitement. This is so true that sometimes I even lose some sleep waiting for signs of a flake or two!

There is something that is very comforting to me about the expectation of the new falling snow. It’s the promise of this snow needing to fall in order to start something new. It begins a season of rest so that spring can soon come and bring renewal and warmth. During Advent we also experience an expectant waiting for the coming of Jesus who will gloriously burst onto the scene. But, Advent also allows us to rest in the knowledge of God’s promises being fulfilled.

In 2 Samuel 7:23-29, David celebrates in prayer that God has remembered the promises made to his ancestors and has asked David and his dependents to make a place for God to dwell in Jerusalem, which becomes the temple as David says in verse 28: “And now, O Lord GOD, you are God, and your words are true and you have promised this good thing to your servant.”

John the Baptist in John 3:31-36 also sees the full promise of God fulfilled in the works of Jesus as Jesus goes about the land teaching, preaching, and healing. Reminding his own followers that Jesus has come with a higher authority from the father, John says, “The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of earth belongs to the earth and is of earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all.”

Friends, during this season of Advent, a time of expectant waiting, let us hold on to the promise that Christ is coming, that Christ has come, and that Christ will come again. May you and your families have a happy Advent and holiday season.




Ethan Hughes
Associate Pastor of Youth and Young Adults, First Baptist Church Winchester, Virginia