living in Advent

Some days I forget it's Advent.

Not just the days leading up till Christmas...but we're living in Advent all the time, people!  We're waiting, preparing (that's what "Advent" means), for the second coming of Jesus Christ, whose first coming to earth we'll celebrate in just twelve days.

We're waiting for the Son of God to come back--God, who became human, one of us--in order to live, die, and rise again--for us.

This Son of God, who loves us so very much, is coming back for us.

Even as we anticipate the joy of Christmas, we see so much sadness in the world.  War, hunger, poverty, homelessness, disease, crime, anger, hate... all the signs that sin saturates this planet.  It might be easy to forget about some of those things for a while, when we're in our warm homes, brightened by colored Christmas lights, eating lots of special food and treats, spending our over-abundance of money on gifts (many of which aren't really necessary), and wishing each other the peace and joy of the season.

Don't get me wrong, those are all good things and I enjoy them so much!  But we like to forget all those bad things that are happening, that don't affect our lives.  But those things are part of our world, too.  They're caused by our own sinfulness.  But Christ came to this sinful world anyway...isn't that amazing?

It's important to remember that these things won't last.  All those horrible, sad, depressing things?  They're temporary.  Our houses, our possessions, our jobs, our wealth (or lack thereof) aren't permanent.

The peace and joy that our Savior brings, though--that will last.

Soon the reign of sin in the world will end.  It may not be in our lifetime, but it will not last forever.

I'm fairly certain it won't end on December 21st.  God is returning, but not when we expect Him to.  We can't foretell when that Day will come--not even the Son knows that, but only the Father.

But it is coming!  The Savior who has come into the world, will come back--to take me, and all believers, to live in paradise with him, for eternity.

It'll be like a never-ending Christmas celebration: surrounded by our loved ones, in the light of His presence, praising God and basking in His love.  Forever.

Are you ready?

late nights and Advent wonder

This last week or so I've had more of them than usual.  Oddly enough, it's twelve thirty and I'm not remotely sleepy.  I'm also in denial about the fact that I have to be up at seven for work.  Eh, six and a half hours, no problem.  I'll get to sleep in on Friday. :)

The main reasons I've been up so late are homework, and...oh.  Homework.  Yeah, that's it.  Mostly it's self-inflicted (coughprocrastinationcough) but I'm pretty okay with that.  Honestly, if I didn't have to get up as early as I do tomorrow I'd just stay up and write my very last paper and be done with it.  I might have been able to anyway if I hadn't spent so much time playing dumb games on facebook  chatting with my husband who was playing a computer game  procrastinating.  Ugh.

Anyway, being up this late tonight makes me wonder...it's Advent.  Eleven days before the birth of Jesus, was Mary sitting up, looking out her window, wondering what the future held?  A young, very pregnant girl, probably about to set out on the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem.  What was she feeling?  Fear?  Excitement?  Anticipation?  Nervousness?  All of the above?

Was she feeling hope?  She knew that the baby in her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

She was carrying, inside her body, God made Man.

Did she feel wonder?  Awe?  Amazement?

Hope?

Some days I fret, not knowing what the future will hold.  I mean, yes, tomorrow I'm getting up and going to work and coming home and going back to work.  We'll celebrate Christmas soon, the next semester will start, in a year and a half we'll finish college.

But will we?  We have no idea what will happen between now and then.  I don't even know what's going to occur in the next hour, the next minute.

But I have hope.  Because although my future might not be certain to me, it's certain to God--that God-made-flesh who was born from Mary, born in a stable, born into a sinful, dark world.

It's still a sinful world.  But Christ, the Light, was born into it, and now a Light shines in the darkness.

There is hope for the future, because that Light has already been there.  God knows what will happen tomorrow, next week, next year.  Nothing will happen in my life without his knowing about it.

And everything that happens to me, God will work for good.

Did Mary know that?  Did she know how eternity-changing her Son's birth would be?  Did she know, anticipating the pains of childbirth, that her baby would experience hell-- for her?  For the world?

I do.  I know what that baby experienced when he became a man.

He did it for me.

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!