The Long Walk Home

Waiting.
A variety of experiences come into that category. Waiting for bus feels very different from waiting for test results. Waiting can be stationary, absorbed in the event being waited for, unable to think about anything else. Waiting can be active in preparing for the said event. Waiting can not feel like waiting at all, it is easy to forget what we are waiting for. What are you waiting for?

Big picture wise we are waiting for the next coming of Jesus. Christmas reminds of the hope in the darkness, the light of the world breaking through into the world. But it does not leave us in the past. It reminds us of the coming that is to come. The day when this world will be wrapped up and new fresh shinny things will be done.

But what are we doing whilst we are waiting? Actively living like the Risen Christ in this messed up world? Or distracted by everything else on offer? Remembering where we have come from and where we are going? Remembering the thrust of our lives, the burning core within us; that Christ has come, Christ is risen and Christ will come again.

The Thessalonians almost got it right. “They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath.” I say almost because they didn’t quite get the hang of active waiting, lazy waiting apparently isn’t an option in God’s books. How are we waiting? Am I waiting? And is that changing what I do today?

The man at the swimming pool I go to a few times a week now knows my membership number off by heart. After going there for two and a half years does this mean I have finally settled in hoveactually?

It is Advent. One of those Christian calendar times that you can eschew in the knowledge that it’s not about observing special days and seasons, or maybe embrace knowing that there are many things that are put into our journey to help us remember the reality around us. Advent is one of those times. A time to stop, think and remember why we are here, what it is we are waiting for and the reality of one God, one man, coming to earth to sort things out once and for all.

I love this time of year, mainly because I’m a sap and love Christmas, warm cozy winter evenings, mulled wine, mince pies and general holiday light in the dark of December. But also because it reminds me of the BIG story. The one we are all part of. The one that defines our lives, whether we accept it or not. And so over the next few weeks I shall be blogging the adventness of life. Mainly to remind me each few days of the reality of what Jesus did, the reality of waiting until he comes again and the hope of Light one day obliterating the darkness forever.

Here’s a classic old style Advent Hymn to kick things off.
Because what happened 2000 years ago affects the whole of our lives, our choices, who we are and where we are going in the end. One day he will come back. Until then we wait in exile, hoping in the God who made this world. Being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Lo! He comes with clouds descending,
Once for favored sinners slain;
Thousand thousand saints attending,
Swell the triumph of His train:
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
God appears on earth to reign.

Every eye shall now behold Him
Robed in dreadful majesty;
Those who set at naught and sold Him,
Pierced and nailed Him to the tree,
Deeply wailing, deeply wailing,
Shall the true Messiah see.

Every island, sea, and mountain,
Heav’n and earth, shall flee away;
All who hate Him must, confounded,
Hear the trump proclaim the day:
Come to judgment! Come to judgment!
Come to judgment! Come away!

Now redemption, long expected,
See in solemn pomp appear;
All His saints, by man rejected,
Now shall meet Him in the air:
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
See the day of God appear!

The dear tokens of His passion
Still His dazzling body bears;
Cause of endless exultation
To His ransomed worshippers;
With what rapture, with what rapture
Gaze we on those glorious scars!

Yea, Amen! let all adore Thee,
High on Thine eternal throne;
Savior, take the power and glory,
Claim the kingdom for Thine own;
O come quickly! O come quickly!
Everlasting God, come down!