Half the fun of Christmas is waiting for its arrival. Children, and many adults, can hardly stand the tantalizing anticipation of fun and gifts. But even apart from Christmas, a lot of people spend their lives waiting. They wait for the perfect love, or the perfect job, or the perfect home, or the perfect situation.
How tragic it is that people often live in despair, believing what they have is all there is to being alive. And yet, what tremendous consolation to realize that there is much more to life than our present trouble.
First and foremost, Jesus’ inaugural sermon was a proclamation that Isaiah’s prophecy from long ago had been fulfilled in the very presence of those who heard him.
I’m sure you’ve sometimes grumbled about the way the news is covered. I know I have. Sound bites of information seem to satisfy a good many people. Rather than really thinking through the issues of the day, people want someone else to do their thinking for them. They want information packaged in capsule form to make the few catchy slogans go down easily. This is all some people want to bother with. Tragically, such a passive approach leads to a very superficial understanding of the world in which we live.
Notice two remarkable things from the words of Zechariah, Elizabeth’s husband, in Luke 1:68–71.
First, nine months earlier, Zechariah had not believed that his wife would have a child. Now, filled with the Holy Spirit, he has become so confident of God’s redeeming work in the coming Messiah that he puts it in the past tense: “He has visited and redeemed his people.” For the mind of faith, a promised act of God is as good as done. Zechariah has learned to take God at his word and so has a remarkable assurance: God “has visited and redeemed!” (Luke 1:68).
If God had not taken the initiative to redeem fallen humanity by sending His Son into the world, there would have been no incarnation, no Christ, no Gospel, no reconciliation with Him. If God had not acted, there would be no resurrection, no working of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and no revelation of God instructing us how to love. I’m so grateful that God took the initiative.
What John the Baptist did for Israel, Advent can do for us. Don’t let Christmas find you unprepared. I mean spiritually unprepared. Its joy and impact will be so much greater if you are ready!
So, that you might be prepared . . .
