Not too long ago, our family made a journey. It was a long journey, and it took the better part of a day to get there and the better part of another day to get back. It was a tiring journey, but it was well worth everything we had to endure to get there. "There" was home, and "there" was a place where we were surrounded by the love of family members, some of whom we had not seen in more years than we care to count. And when we came back, we were not the same people we were before the journey. We felt refreshed and renewed, reassured that, even though "home" has changed a lot since we were growing up there, the love we expected to find was still there in abundance.

Each year, during the season of Advent, the church sets off on a journey. We begin to prepare our hearts and our minds for the…