In our home we have an advent calendar. There are twenty-five little pockets, each with a slip of paper suggesting a fun activity or something we can do as a family to celebrate the season. The kids carefully divide up the days to make sure they each get an equal amount of turns to unveil what’s in the pocket for that day. (Because Heaven forbid that one child should get to open more pockets than another!) And then, after each revealing, they countdown. As the weeks pass, Christmas Day gets closer. They jump and squeal with excitement and anticipation. The youngest, with little sense of time yet, just knows something awesome is coming. He doesn’t know when, but he can see and know the calendar is closing in on That Day.
My point is this. I spent this past Christmas season purposefully aware of the ways in which we “wait” during Advent. The tree, the gifts, the soft glow of twinkle lights and candles, the Christmas movies, the carols, the advent wreath in the center of our table. We create an atmosphere of waiting. And oh, the Day is so joyous and worth the wait! But what if as Christ followers we donned a spirit of Advent not only during December, but for all 365 days of the year? What if we put the same passion into waiting for the Day we actually see our Risen Lord face to face as we do into the holiday season? Because this side of the resurrection, our celebration of Christmas Day is simply a foreshadowing of our greater hope, isn’t it? Not only did He come...Bless God, But He is coming again and we will be with Him!
Romans 8:22-24 says, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not have, we wait for it patiently.”
Sons and Daughters, are you groaning for the Day when Jesus Christ is revealed? Do you live your days in a perpetual advent of preparation and joyous expectation? Like my youngest, even though we have little sense God’s timing, are you firmly trusting that The Day will come simply because the Word of God says so? 1 Peter 1:13 calls us to “set our hope fully on the grace to be given to us when Jesus Christ is revealed.” So, what are you waiting for?
The world needs to see a church that is actively waiting in fullest hope for something other than what is offered here. They need to see and hear our active waiting expressed through lives emptied and poured out in the love of God and in inexpressible joy because what we’re waiting for is greater than any gift you can buy on Amazon or find under the tree. It’s even greater than whatever circumstances we are waiting for God to intervene in, in our lives now. Ongoing trial, longsuffering, loneliness, a dream, relational wounds or deep hurt...whatever we’re waiting on as we trod our dusty road. The world needs to see a Spirit of Advent in us that is waiting in confident hope for something more.
And so, beloved, with Christmas now behind us and eleven months ahead...what are you waiting for?
Pray with me that the world might see and hear our groaning, that we might put more attention and effort into our hopeful waiting for the Last Day than we do on the next package to arrive on our doorstep.
Pray that we might be a church that decorates our ongoing advent season with a garland of praise and with lavish gifts of grace and forgiveness. With wreaths of compassion, songs of hope and healing, prayers of selfless, passionate intercession and with the glowing light of His love.
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