What winter warmers are on your menu?

As cafés fill up with festive flavours, Kathryn Barwise asks what we're looking forward to this Advent and Christmas.

‘Your winter warmers… Coming soon!’ This slogan starts appearing in cafés in October but, as it gets to the end of November and we draw closer to the busy yet wonderful season of Advent, I do get quite excited by the prospect of those hot festive drinks coming out. The subtle romanticisation of winter, savouring the tastes of the season: gingerbread, caramel, chocolate orange (my dad gets one annually for Christmas). With the announcement of the latest festive line-up of teas, coffees and hot chocolates comes the thrill of not knowing exactly what will be available – will I like the flavours this year? Are they Christmassy enough? Will one café’s offerings be better than another’s? Will their promises live up to my expectations?

I wonder if those before that first Christmas felt the same. Would they wonder what the prophesied Saviour would be like? What had God planned for the salvation of humanity? The magi certainly had long enough to contemplate this: they followed the star for a long time.

If there had been an announcement saying ‘your saviour coming soon’, would the world 2025 years ago have expected a babe, an infant? Would he have been special enough for them? Would they have scoured Bethlehem to find him as he was? Or would they rather have had a selection of choices to best suit their expectations?

The shepherds were told that a saviour had been born, a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. They wanted to see what had happened, because the Lord had announced it to them (see Luke 2:15). They returned, ‘glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told’ (Luke 2:20). The shepherds had heard the announcement of Jesus’ coming: they listened, followed and rejoiced. They found Jesus exactly as they were told and were overjoyed! As a simple baby, Jesus had already exceeded their expectations.

Our Saviour wasn’t advertised worldwide with trumpets at the moment of his birth, but he was prophesied about: just as we know those winter warmers will come around every year, the Jews knew that the Saviour would one day come. The magi knew that the ‘King of the Jews’ (Matthew 2:2) had been born, but they assumed he’d been born in Jerusalem in a palace. However, Jesus was more than enough for them: they worshipped him and gave him precious gifts, for they did not need anything more from their saviour than his presence, and the knowledge that he would save.

Unlike our favourite festive drinks, Jesus’ birth was only announced to a select few, something that’s summed up nicely in the worship song ‘Winter Snow’ by Shane & Shane, featuring Dinah Wight: ‘You came like a winter snow,/ Quiet and soft and slow.’

Those first people welcomed him into the world and were joyous about his entrance. So should we welcome the reality of our Saviour as we journey through Advent to Christmas. His birth, his humble entrance into our broken world – the best promise we could hope for.

Reflect and respond

• What are your expectations of God as you journey towards Christmas?
• Listen to ‘Winter Snow’ and reflect on the lyrics: ‘You came like a winter snow,/ Quiet and soft and slow./ Falling from the sky in the night/ To the earth below.’ How can you welcome and respond to the reality of God’s love coming down to our world?