Advent: He is Coming!

I remember when, as a child, I would wait excitedly for a guest to arrive.  Sometimes it would be my grandparents, sometimes my friends.  I would clean the house, make myself look nice, and sit in the living room ready to greet whoever was coming.

We prepare to greet honored guests all the time.  It's exciting when we're expecting a special person to arrive.  But do we realize that a person more honored and special than anyone on earth is coming?  At the very end of Revelation, Jesus said, "I am coming soon."  At the end of time, when God decides, Jesus will come again in glory and take believers to heaven with him.  We don't know when he is coming, but we will know it when he arrives.

Just as I prepared excitedly for family or friends to visit, we have the opportunity to prepare for Jesus' arrival on the last day.  A clean house won't matter very much, nor will nice clothes or combed hair.  But there are things we can do to prepare.  In Romans, Paul encourages his readers to be awake and ready for Jesus' appearing.  He writes,
"The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.  The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.  So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.  Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.  Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature."  (Romans 13:11-14)

We are living in the end times right now.  They began when Jesus ascended into heaven and promised his disciples that he would return someday.  The next great event in God's plan of salvation is to send his Son back again.  That is what we are waiting for.

The season of Advent leads up to Christmas; it's the beginning of the church year.  During Advent we remember how Mary and Joseph waited for Jesus to be born.  That was the Messiah's first coming.  In these last days, it is also a time to remind ourselves that Jesus is coming again and to be prepared.

Today, I am going to remember to live in anticipation of Jesus' second coming, and to wait on him: for he is coming!