Behold the Lamb of God: An Advent Narrative

Guess what I just preordered for $12?

(I know what you're saying: "Karen, where did you find $12?!" I didn't. But this is important enough to forego $12 of groceries this month.)

My favorite holiday tradition is Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb of God" Concert at the Ryman Auditorium. In fact, I've made a personal vow to never miss this annual Christmas concert. There are not words to explain its magic on the first of November, but come mid-December, expect a thoroughly wordy blog post about why I love this so much. In a nutshell, Andrew Peterson wrote a conceptual album of (almost all) original music, detailing the birth of our Savior from the Old Testament through the Gospels. "Moving" simply doesn't adequately describe what it does to my soul.

This week, the Rabbit Room announced that Russ Ramsey is coming out with a book to complement Andrew's album. As this post describes it, "Russ was doing in prose what Andrew had done in music with his Behold the Lamb of God album." Russ is like a legend to me, mostly because he's associated with the Rabbit Room, but also because he's a pastor at Midtown Fellowship's 12 South location and officiated at Matt & Lauren's wedding.

Of all the things to make me giddy about the holiday season (beware readers: there are many), none get me quite so excited as Advent. I tend to keep 5+ different types of Advent calendars each year. Lucky enough for people like me, this book will have 25 chapters: one for each day leading up to Christmas, each one revealing a new take on the Christmas story.

I'm going to be bold and say that this will be my favorite thing about Christmas 2011...and if we're lucky enough, beyond.

And if you're starting to feel your veins pulsing with excitement, go here and pre-order it now so we can start reading together on December 1.

(I admit the irony of posting twice on November 1 with conflicting messages about my feelings towards talking about Christmas in November. I also admit that I may not really know how to use the word "irony.")