Are you looking forward to the Christmas season? The Christmas season can get busy—very busy. Though it’s a season of joy, the pace of life can get overwhelming. Even things we love about the Christmas season, such as time with friends and family or crossing off Christmas lists, can easily become the main focus rather than what the Christmas season is really about. Do you find that during the holiday season, it can be easy to lose sight of Jesus? The weeks leading up to Christmas are typically fast-paced and focused on going and doing. But Advent is about slowing down, waiting, and preparing. We slow down and meditate on the state of the world without Christ and the darkness and sin that Jesus came to remove and destroy. We wait with longing and hope for the celebration and joy that Christmas brings, and we prepare our hearts and our homes for Christ’s arrival—now, through the Holy Spirit, and in the last days when Christ returns. In Awakening Wonder | Experiencing the Nearness of Jesus, you are invited into this centuries-old practice of Advent—the intentional anticipation of God’s presence with man. During the season of Advent, you’ll join with Christians around the world to prepare your heart to celebrate the incarnation—the accomplishment of God taking the form of a human and dwelling among us. This study was designed to help you meditate on and marvel at Jesus’s incarnation, the wonderful truth that Jesus took on flesh and came near to us.