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Text: Charles Wesley, 1745
Tune: HYFRYDOL, Rowland H. Prichard, 1830
(scroll to bottom to listen!)
Advent is a season of waiting - but for what? Jesus was born a long time ago. He already lived. And died. And rose from the dead. And ascended into heaven. What exactly are we waiting for? Why are we asking Jesus to come when he already came?
Advent looks backto a time when the people of God eagerly awaited a Messiah. There is a thread of promise and hope that begins in the very beginning of the Bible and weaves its way through the history and poetry and prophetic books of God's word. God's people waited and watched for that hope to be realized.
And the Jesus came. That is the reason we celebrate Christmas and the waiting is one thing we remember during Advent.
But there is another period of waiting that we are living in right now. Just after Jesus was taken up into heaven, two men dressed in white mysteriously appeared to them and gave them a message. They said:
"why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." (Acts 1:11)
That's where we find ourselves today. It is not enough to stand around idly, gawking at the sky as we wait. There is so much to do. So many people who haven't heard the news that Jesus Christ was born to set his people free. But we are still waiting. We can be eagerly and actively anticipating the return of Jesus, and Advent is the perfect time to remember.
I've been thinking and praying this passage from Revelation 22 this week:
The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let the one who hears say, "Come!" Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes to take the free gift of water of life.