Advent 2025: To be fulfilled

Stories | December 6, 2025 | Author: Stevie Wills

Advent is an invitation to sit with that which is spoken, but not yet fulfilled. It’s a season of reflection and preparation in the lead-up to celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ on Christmas Day.  This Advent, CBM Australia is reflecting on the theme of ‘Prepare the Way’. We invite you to continue with us.

In the first week of our Advent series, we reflected on the call in Isaiah 40 to prepare the way for God’s presence, which brings community and invites everyone into relationship with Him and one another. To truly prepare, we must remove barriers (particularly those that exclude people with disabilities) so all can fully respond to this invitation. Read last week’s ‘God’s presence includes all’ reflection for further contemplation.

In Malachi 3:1, We find another prophecy that is interlinked with the coming of the presence of God: ‘I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire will come,’ says the Lord Almighty.”

After this prophecy, 400 years passed during which God’s presence was removed from the people. His voice was silent. The words…the promises…of God’s presence returning (Isaiah 40) and the messenger who would prepare the way before him (Malachi 3) remained…lingered with the people. For 400 years…promises not yet evidenced. Hope, not yet fulfilled.

Until Gabriel, the angel of God, announces to Zechariah in Luke 1:5-25, that he and his wife would have a child…even in their old age. They were to call this child John.

John the Baptist fulfilled the prophecy in Malachi and began to prepare the way for the Lord.

400 Years after the prophecies that God’s presence would return and that a messenger prepare the way before him

First…God’s word broke through.

The announcement of John’s arrival

Soon after, the coming of the presence of God

Inclusion is spoken highly of. It is a value that is typically ascribed to. Yet people with disabilities routinely face barriers to fully participating in society. We sit in the value of inclusion and accessibility, but not yet their complete fulfilment.

Building an inclusive and accessible society for all people requires intention, learning, listening and implementation. We enter the second week of Advent; anticipating the birth of Christ, but not yet celebrating. I’m Stevie Wills, associate of CBM Australia, and I invite you to consider the space between our values of accessibility and inclusion and the barriers that people with disabilities face.

God’s presence is coming, where we will all be called into community with him and with one another. May we take steps to prepare the way so that people with disabilities can enter community in its fullness.