Preparing for Jesus: Meditations on the Coming of Christ, Advent, Christmas and the Kingdom [Hardcover]

Walter Wangerin Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1999

In Preparing for Jesus, best-selling author and master storyteller Walter Wangerin Jr. recreates verbal images of the events surrounding the Advent of Christ, offering a devotional journey into the heart of the Christmas season. Through rich detail and vivid images, these moving meditations make Christ's birth both intimate and immediate, allowing us to see Christmas from its original happening to its perennial recurrence in our hearts. Preparing for Jesus is sure to be a seasonal classic, treasured year after year.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Readers love Walter Wangerin for his wonderful way of rendering biblical truths in completely new and novel ways, making those truths come alive in emotions, stories, and images. In Making Ready, Wangerin contemplates the miracle of Advent, Christmas, and God's kingdom, and once again illuminates, in richly personal detail, what those who were actually there must have seen, heard, and felt. As he considers the possibilities of each key figure-- Zechariah, Mary, Elizabeth, John the Baptist, Joseph, Jesus, Simeon, and Anna--he applies their reflections to our own readiness for Christ's coming. Advent means the approach or the arrival, and through the 39 days of this season, from December 1 to Epiphany, January 6, Wangerin meditates on the preparations of those who witnessed Jesus' incarnation--a perfect pattern, he says, for our own making ready. From the first inkling of Jesus' expected arrival to Mary's birth pains and finally to the wise Kings bearing gifts, Wangerin presents a vision of Christmas, not as a once-a-year event but as an ongoing happening in people's lives. Instead of focusing on how far modern culture has strayed from the original meaning of Christmas, Wangerin concentrates on how powerful, beautiful, and life-changing this season can be for believers. Following the example of those who, in the light of the first advent, examined and repaired their lives, Christians today can in a similar way prepare for the coming of the Lord in glory.

From the Author

Walter Wangerin Jr. first came to prominence as the award-winning author of The Book of the Dun Cow. He has since won many other awards and honors for his books, including the best-selling Book of God. Wangerin holds the Jochum Chair at Valparaiso University in Indiana, where he is writer-in-residence

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 195 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310206448
• ISBN-13: 978-0310206446
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #626,766 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Walter Wangerin Jr. is widely recognized as one of the most gifted writers writing today on the issues of faith and spirituality. Starting with the renowned Book of the Dun Cow, Wangerin's writing career has encompassed most every genre: fiction, essay, short story, children's story, meditation, and biblical exposition. His writing voice is immediately recognizable, and his fans number in the millions. The author of over forty books, Wangerin has won the National Book Award, New York Times Best Children's Book of the Year Award, and several Gold Medallions, including best-fiction awards for both The Book of God and Paul: A Novel. He lives in Valparaiso, Indiana, where he is Senior Research Professor at Valparaiso University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Your were There: at the Manger ..., January 6, 2003

By 

Paul M. Dubuc (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Preparing for Jesus: Meditations on the Coming of Christ, Advent, Christmas and the Kingdom (Hardcover)

I enjoyed using this little book during this past Advent and Christmas. Walter Wangerin Jr. has used his wonderful gift writing to give us a series of daily meditations that are a great help in focusing the mind, heart and imagination of the reader on the deepest significance of Christmas. We follow the events of the first Christmas from with scripture accompanied by short writings, poetry and prayer. Wangerin's writing varies between dramatization, exposition and application of the Christmas story to our lives. If you relax and let the author and the Holy Spirit have their way, the book will help you break through the confusion and frenzied cultural activity that often accompany Advent and touch the deeper meaning of the season. It doesn't drop you after Christmas Day but carries you through the 12 days of Christmas, gently releasing you at the beginning of Epiphany. It will leave you feeling like you've been there: at the Manger and help you go and live out the significance of Christ's coming to us in your own life.

I highly recommend this book, I thought it was even more effective than Wangerin's similar--and also very good--book for Lent and Easter, "Reliving the Passion".

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent family tradition, January 14, 2008

By 

Charlie B "Charlie" (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Preparing for Jesus: Meditations on the Coming of Christ, Advent, Christmas and the Kingdom (Hardcover)

This book contains a few pages of Scripture-based meditation for each of the 25 days before Christmas ("Advent") plus similar meditations for each of the traditional "12 Days of Christmas" after Christmas. You will learn more than you expected, and it will be relevant to the true meaning of Christmas. The book is small, and somehow bridges scholarly research and deep thought with relatively easy reading. Easily scaled down for family reading, it's an exceptional idea for a lasting family Christmas tradition. Highly recommended.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get JACKED about Christmas!, September 22, 2009

By 

David Von (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Preparing for Jesus: Meditations on the Coming of Christ, Advent, Christmas and the Kingdom (Hardcover)

What a great book. If you read Wangerin's Easter book (Reliving the Passion) it is very similar in style and process. Suggested that you read a chapter daily during Advent. The chapters are SHORT and even I could muster the self discipline to read one a day, easily done during a cup of coffee in the morning or tv commercial in the evening. Be careful if you read this book. By the time Christmas comes you'll be so pumped about the birth of Jesus that every other gift you receive or give will seem like a disappointment. Excellent.