12/22/2025
A reflection for the fourth and last Sunday of Advent, by Ted Steiner, Director of Mission and Ministry at Jennings
Our time of preparation and waiting is winding down, and Christmas is drawing near!
Today’s readings from Isaiah and the Gospel of Matthew talk about signs. This is a familiar theme in the Bible. People are often looking for a sign or a miracle to confirm their belief or to give them direction. In response, God often gives a sign, but it comes in a form that people don’t expect. God usually doesn’t write a message in the sky or give us something that provides absolute certainty.
The sign of Christmas fits this pattern. God says, you are looking for a sign, and I am going to give you one. “Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” The sign that God sends is a little baby, born in a stable and laid in a manger. It’s good to remember what a tiny thing this actually was two thousand years ago, in a rural town, in what is now the West Bank of Palestine. The tiny baby Jesus was sent to tell us that “God is with us.”
This small spark of life would eventually change the world. This season, let us look for the tiny miracles and the small signs God is sending. How is God reaching out to us and trying to tell us, “I am with you!”?
