Advent Buzzard

As it is the first day of advent, it is time for our advent guest to make his appearance. Allow me to introduce you to our advent buzzard. 

For those of you who find this advent tradition a bit strange, you should….  Though not original to me, you will be hard pressed to find much information on the magical interwebs regarding this unusual, yet awesome advent tradition. Sadly, there isn’t even one pin of my buzzard friend… or should I say frenemy? Don’t let his semi-cute demeanor fool you… he stands for sin. 

As the tale goes, once upon a time, some preacher person (likely fed up with secular holiday traditions) hung up a homemade buzzard (originally constructed from men’s dress socks) in a prominent place in their home.  His purpose was to remind their family of sin, evil, and distractions that surround us every day that draw our attention away from Christ, especially during the season of advent when we should be looking and waiting for Him.  Any time you pass this buzzard, you are supposed to whack him and say something like “I renounce the powers of darkness and look for the coming light!” Thankfully, the children of the family shortened this to “Jesus is coming you old buzzard!”

We have had our buzzard for several years now.  He isn’t a very ugly buzzard, but that’s ok because most of the time sin looks pretty appealing, as do many of the things that distract us from seeking Christ during this season. We don’t have a very good place to hang him up, especially given the 3’ to 6’4” height differential in our household.  So instead, our buzzard finds a place to perch until someone notices him, whacks or throws him (the littlest one prefers the latter), and reminds us all that “Jesus is coming!”  That person then finds a new place for the old buzzard to perch until he surprises someone else.  I find this twist on the original an acceptable change, for evil also hides well, often appearing where we least expect it. 

Come Christmas day, the buzzard will be packed away until next advent as we celebrate Christ’s first coming and look forward to His second coming, but I hope we take the reminders with us… that even things that seem good can distract us from seeking Christ… to be wary of the sin and evil that lurk around us… to remember and be thankful that Christ has already defeated the powers of darkness… and to look forward to His coming again.    

Perhaps you want to go construct your own buzzard now… Perhaps not.  But either way, I hope that this advent you will find some way to remind yourself and your family whom we are waiting and longing for. 

Come thou long expected Jesus born to set thy people free.