Anticipating Advent

    “Love is patient.” ~1 Corinthians 13:4

Do you remember how long it seemed to take for Christmas to arrive when you were young? Think back to kindergarten or first grade — it felt like the time between the last day of school and Christmas morning lasted a whole year! And no wonder, for a young child one week is a much larger percentage of his or her life than it is for an adult. I guess that’s why time seems to go so much faster as we age.

What must it have felt like to those saints who were living at the time of Christ’s first advent? Think about how long those thousands of years must have seemed! Anticipation had been growing since God promised our first parents that He would send a Seed to crush the serpent (Gen. 3:15). Throughout the years God continued to remind His people that the first Christmas was coming. Abraham was promised an Offspring who would be a blessing, even a King (Gen. 17:6, 22:18). David received another promise of Christmas when the Lord said a Son from his own body would have an everlasting Kingdom (2 Sam. 7:12-13). The prophets also foretold the coming of Christmas morning. Sometimes it was referred to as a light dawning in the darkness (Isa. 9:2), or a shoot growing out of an apparently dead stump (Isa. 11:1), or even a child born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14). If you look closely, you’ll find hints that the Christmas child would be a builder (Amos 9:11-12), a warrior (Hab. 3:12-15), and even a singer (Zeph. 3:17)!

Millennia passed without Christmas morning. But the promises had been made by a God who cannot lie (Num. 23:19). So Israel waited. And waited. And waited. God’s people must have felt like a young child waiting to wake up on Christmas morning to open that special gift. How little did they know that Gift they were waiting for would be wrapped in swaddling cloths rather than shiny wrapping paper.

Do you find yourself growing impatient for the days to pass so you can celebrate Christmas morning? Do you struggle to contain your excitement for watching your loved ones open their presents — or perhaps secretly you just can’t wait to open yours? Let me encourage you to grow more in anticipation for Christ’s return than you do for the celebration of His first coming. This year, think not only of the first advent, but of the promised second advent (Acts 1:11). Allow the anticipation and excitement to grow in your heart for the day of His return, for when He does, we who are in Christ will be made like Him because we will see Him as He is (1 John 3:2), and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever (Psa. 23:6). That’s a day worth waiting for, isn’t it?

Rev. Kyle Lockhart, Associate Pastor