What on earth are you waiting for?
It’s a good question to ask during Advent, the official season of waiting and preparation for Christmas.
I won’t actually do this, but if I stood outside Walmart and asked people what they’re waiting for right now, I’d probably get all kinds of answers before store security personnel escorted me and my question out to my car.
“I’m waiting …
… for my wife to come out of this store.”
… for Santa to bring me stuff.”
… for a job.”
… for the Christmas bonus my boss promised me.”
… for Clemson to win the national football championship.”
We’re all waiting for something, or many things, including Christmas.
I didn’t grow up with Christmas “countdown” traditions like Advent candles and calendars, but I do now appreciate any and all reminders to keep my focus off the sometimes stressful manmade traditions of the season and on the eternal significance of the first coming of the Son of God into our world.
Had Jesus not come that first time, we couldn’t be reconciled to God and would have no hope of heaven. And that is a very, very big deal, worthy of much attention and celebration, which is what Advent is all about.
The dictionary defines the word advent as “the arrival of a notable person, thing or event.” Christmas certainly is all of that, but during this Advent season, I find myself thinking more and more about another Advent less-often talked about: when Jesus comes to this world again, not as a baby destined to die, but as a king destined to reign.
It’s more challenging, I admit, to focus on this second, future Advent because no one knows exactly when or how it will happen. Nevertheless, the Bible makes it clear that followers of Christ are supposed to get REALLY excited about it.
“ … so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting EAGERLY the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Corinthians 1:7)
“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we EAGERLY await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ …” (Philippians 3:20)
In 2 Timothy 4:8, a “crown of righteousness” is promised to “all who have LONGED for His (Jesus’) returning.”
Get a picture in your mind right now of kids counting down the days until Santa Claus comes. They are eager. They long for him to get here. It seems like every hour they ask, “How much longer? When is he coming?”
That’s what we’re to be like as we eagerly await and long for something that’s actually real and infinitely more glorious—the return of Jesus Christ.
In 1 Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul describes how Jesus will return to rescue His followers out of this world and then instructs us to “encourage each other with these words.”
How can we encourage each other with this sure hope if we never talk about it?
Should we really choose not to think or talk about the Second Advent just because we can’t thoroughly understand everything about it? After all, we think and talk about lots of things we can’t completely understand—marriage and teenagers and politics, for example.
Both the first and second comings of Christ are crucial to God’s plan. They are the front and back covers of God’s redemption story. As we celebrate the first during this season of Advent, let’s not forget to prepare our hearts and lives for the second.
I don’t know about you, but it’s what on earth I’m waiting for.
“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” – Jesus Christ (John 14:3)