Advent should be the season for us to reflect, not just on the tenderness of the manger scene, but of what that scene represents below the surface. It should push us to understand that God became incarnate in the world of the poor and oppressed and shared intimately in that reality.

I write about real-life because that is where I live with three active boys at home -- one curious 9-year-old Gus and 15-year-old twins, Wesley and Mickael Josef. And now my college-age son Ryan and his fiancée Larissa are home for Christmas as well with my daughter Rachel and her husband!

Every time I turn on the TV, I'm reminded of the myth of Christmas perfection. I see a mother with make-up on baking cookies in the kitchen with her well-behaved children. Her home glows. Her tree glows. She glows. I know it's all part of a well-orchestrated fantasy directed by ad executives and retail kings, but still, I can't help but compare.

Not a soul would take pleasure in God's quietness on this one. But in God's silence, there is a Story we turn to -- not for answers, but for hope.

"The Shack" author, Wm. Paul Young, and his thoughts on the crisis of Advent.

With their surprisingly seasonal, covertly Christian expectations of doom, contemporary neo-pagans remind us (at least this December) that judgment draweth nigh. Even while countless Christmas carolers forget.

Ancient Christian saints, theologians and evangelists would be horrified that those who claim to stand for tradition have forgotten the most important aspect of it. Jesus Christ was not born that human beings would spend December shopping or saying, "Merry Christmas."

I remember your advent / assumed the rounded shape hope / has, how the arching / patch of whiteness you incorporated / indicated the gleam an apple boasts / nesting in folds / in a work you called "Anticipating" / which might have been called / "The Body Incarnated / Bears New Light."

Is it an opportunity to meet the surprising around you? Is it an opportunity to reflect on what is most needed in your heart and in the world around you? How are you going to wait for that gift?

How ironic that the announcement of Kate Middleton's pregnancy was made on the second day of Advent! Has the season of Advent been shadowed or enhanced by the news of a modern-day royal birth?

Author, educator and activist Parker Palmer on Advent and the Word made flesh.

Advent forces us to acknowledge that there's nothing comfortable or nice or cozy or organized or neat or respectable about the coming of our Lord. It's dangerous. It's dirty. It's smelly. Mice roam freely.

The problem is that Christmas has lost it's shock value. One of the great purposes of Advent is to help us recover that shock.

If we enter the Advent journey with a different perspective on time, the apocalyptic texts speak afresh.

Editor's note: Dear reader, may you have a blessed Advent! HuffPost Religion invites you to share your Advent reflections and experiences with us. Wha...

Desire is a key part of Christian spirituality because desire is a key way that God's voice is heard in our lives. And our deepest desire, planted within us, is our Advent desire for Christ, the Desire of the Nations.