last night we finished putting the lights on the outside of the house, in honesty, i hadn't taken half of them down from last Christmas, ok, from two Christmases ago. we were outside at the end of the night, did my best Clark Griswold, plugged 'em in and Dom went running around, its Christmas, its Christmas, DAD! Jesus is coming! Even this morning, he reminded me many times, Dad, Jesus is coming. He's coming. (nodding emphatically). Ah, Advent. The season we remember the coming of the Messiah, and we practice the hope of the resurrection.
I remember the first time my Dad shared one of his frustrations with expressions of Christianity; 'bumper sticker verses'. Ya know, when a verse gets yanked out of context, we put it on a bumper sticker and call it all good. Jeremiah 29.11. You probably know it without the link. Read the context my Dad would say, yeah, God has plans for us, and they start with us getting used to where we are, and living well there.
Israel is in exile, false prophets say, this won't be long, Jeremiah says, 'Actually, its going to be a while.' 70 years. 70 years they have to wait for their promised redemption. That's going to take a little while. So, what does God say to do, 'Build houses, plant gardens, get married, have kids, have your kids get married.' Ya know, get on with life. But if we look at those things they aren't just 'get on with life things'; they are celebration worthy things. The actions they were called to, were actions that would be seen as surprising to their captors. You are prisoners here, and yet you celebrate, you do things that are causes for hope, causes for joy.
We are waiting, we are anticipating. How do we wait? Do we circle a date on the calendar and then bear it until then? Or do we celebrate the promises we've been given? How I hope and pray that as we celebrate Advent, we celebrate with great joy, great hope!
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