Happenings 12 November 23
We are soon to come to the season of Advent.
There are two directions we face in Advent – a looking backward and a looking forward. Two millennia ago, the Jewish people were looking backward at the promises made by God that a Messiah would come to their rescue … and clutching those promises with desperation and urgency, they looked forward to his coming. He was their last hope. They were ground down, defeated, discouraged, tired and weary. If God wasn’t faithful in this, then all was lost.
For us in Aotearoa all these years later, we look backward on this baby born in the town of David, the Messiah and Lord. We marvel with wide-eyed wonder and foot-tapping joy how God delivered on his promise, how his reputation as a promise-keeping God was confirmed once more. But not all promises have been fulfilled. Jesus gave a new promise that he would return again to this broken world to mend all hurts and judge all evils.
And so we too look forward, waiting for God to come through, albeit with all the patience of children in the back seat of the car on a long journey! But it is different this time, because Christ has left by his Spirit the gifts of Hope, Joy, Peace and Love, and we will celebrate each of these over the coming weeks.
Perhaps at this time of year you are feeling ground down, defeated, discouraged, tired and weary. May the fulfilment of the First Promise all those years ago give you Hope and Joy and Peace in knowing that this God of Love will also deliver on the Second Promise. May looking back give you confidence as you look forward. Come, Lord Jesus, come!
In Him,
Murray
