As December descends upon us, it brings with it a heightened anticipation. The night streets throughout our communities grow brighter while our calendars fill up faster. The children count down days while the adults count obligations. The beauty of the season that is found in the sights, sounds, and scents all seem to rush us towards Christmas morning. Yet, Christians are not waiting for Christmas morning, but for Christ to return. This is a different type of lens that helps us to transcend the temporal of the season and find the eternal. The challenge is to slow down enough to see what we are waiting for and the story we are living in.
The story of Advent begins with God’s people in the shadows of their sin waiting in anticipation for God to keep his promise. This promise was first spoken in the Garden of Eden as God gave the hope of a savior, an offspring, who would come to fix and renew all that has been wronged.
Anticipation echoes down to the time of the prophet Isaiah, who is writing into great division. The kingdom of God’s people has broken into two, with Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Primarily writing to Judah, who is led by the wicked King Ahaz, Isaiah warns and foretells that they “will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness” (Isaiah 8:22, ESV).
Into that darkness, God reminds his people of the same promise spoken in the garden. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness on them has light shone” (Isaiah 9:2, ESV). God gives to them hope that “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse” (Isaiah 11:1, ESV). This shoot would bring about a great reversal turning their gloom to glory. The challenge for them was that they would have to wait.
But, in their angst of waiting, God would arrive in the most inconspicuous manner. Immanuel, God with us, born as a baby amongst the animals. Christians understand Isaiah to be speaking about King Jesus, a real historical man who was born taking on flesh to walk upon this earth as the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Ultimately, the cries of the cradle lead to the cries on a cross. Jesus pays for the darkness and destruction that our sin has caused. We know that we are not waiting for this baby to be born, but for this king of Kings to return, bringing with him his counsel, might, love, and peace.
The greatest challenge for us may not be darkness but distraction. We busy ourselves as we may, but our hearts still ask the same questions: How long? When will things change? Does God still see us? We still have the tendency to look to the dirt.
But the sights, sounds, and scents beckon to us to look back to look forward. As we do, we are reassured that our anticipation that is not empty but filled with a sure and certain hope. Our angst of hopeful waiting remembers that to us Christ has come, and to us Christ will come again. So fight the distraction and dashing of schedules to let the season proclaim that our waiting is not wasted.
Rick Bartek
Lead Pastor at Stockham Community Church
401 Scott Street, Stockham, NE
