Well, I found this little composition last night that I wrote in late November 2020. Even though its over a year old, I almost find it more applicable to my family, my close friends, and myself than it was last year. 2021 wasn’t a cake walk for a lot of people around me.
Maybe this will be a blessing to someone (someone patient enough to read 500 words in a Facebook post LOL!).
Merry Christmas, friends.
We Wait In Wonder
November 20, 2020
The whole world waits, holding their breath, for something wonderful. Something to fill them with awe. The anticipation and hope of coming joy, salvation, the promise of things being set right.
The year is 1 AD (ish). The birth of the Messiah takes place while the created world watches in wonder. Most people are completely oblivious because the coming did not fit into their expectations. Yet, He came just the same. To seek and to save. To rescue and restore. To heal and forgive. This is why we celebrate. This is why we try to fill the season with awe and wonder and “magical” moments. What our souls are really after is the supernatural reality of the coming of our Lord to live with us and meet us in our sin-sick state. Not just to live alongside us, but to choose to die that we might be set free from the things that tangle and tie us up like long neglected strings of Christmas lights that are easier to throw away than unravel.
The year is 2020 (now 2021). This year is pivotal for our society collectively. It has been hard. It has been strange. It has been unsettling and full of fear. It has been discouraging. It has been disappointing. It has brought mourning and sorrow and changes we never thought possible. So, as we sit on the cusp on the Advent season, there is a collective breath of hope. There is a desperate need to believe that something about this season…anything…will make the year better, worth surviving. We want something that will save this year from being a total disaster on every level. Even those who don’t realize it are longing for the real reason the Christmas season exists. We are all longing for Jesus.
Friend, there is good news. He came. He dwelt. And He still wants to dwell with us. With you. Emmanuel – God with us. God with you. Amid the ribbons and bows, trees decked out in all their festive glory a month before usual, gifts and giving, family, food, and friends…He is what we are really searching for. He is the only thing that can fill our hearts with wonder and leave us standing in awe the way our inner man desires. We know, in our souls, what we are looking for. We just often miss the source in favor of the glitter and lights.
The parallels are striking to me this year. There is such a need for something to believe in. Someone who won’t let you down. Something you can count on. Some way to make sense of the life we’ve been living this year (and every year). This is how God’s people living in the first century felt. Living under unfair and harsh rulers. Praying for a promise to be fulfilled. Seeing hardship after hardship. Not hearing from God for 400 long years. They were desperate for hope. Hoping for joy. Pleading for salvation from this life they didn’t understand and which was so hard to live. And then came Jesus. And He changed everything.
Will you take this Advent season to consider the wonder of Jesus…who He is…why He came…and why this miraculous, supernatural event should matter in your life?
A Harry Life 