"On that day it will be said,
Look, this is our God;
we have waited for him, and he has saved us
This is the Lord, we have waited for him.
Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation."
Isaiah 25:9 (CSB)
This is such a hopeful verse. There will come a day when we will say, "we have waited for our God, and He has saved us!" It will surely be a day to rejoice and be glad!
Indeed, in a very real way this day has already arrived. Our Lord was born, lived, died, rose and accomplished our salvation once and for all. Matthew recounts how He was to be named Jesus for He would "save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). Or, as John the Baptist announced, He is the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). This is the first focus of Advent--our anticipation of the celebration of our Lord's incarnation and birth!
And at the same time, there is the second focus--our anticipation of His return. And this, I think we would agree, is still to come. And so...we are still in the waiting. And so..we may still be looking for His salvation.
In the middle of a season of glad tidings and joy, we may still struggle. We may relate to the "holiday blues"--reminded of ways Christmas Past was better than Christmas Present. We may long for times when things were easier or simpler. Or we may miss precious loved ones.
Waiting can be especially uncomfortable, and pain can be even more accessible to us than comfort. Frustration may be more sensible than enthusiasm. We may even identify more with languishing than flourishing.
As difficult as this may be, we need not add shame to our struggle. At some point in our lives, we all experience the discomfort or even agony of waiting. And this is very much why we need Advent. Why we need to be reminded of a day when everything will be made better and there will be no more tears and no more goodbyes (and those of you who know me know that I am very reluctant to say "need," though I think I need to use this word here:). A day made possible by that Bethlehem moment when Heaven broke into Earth and changed everything.
And so we wait. "Amen, Come, Lord Jesus!" (Revelation 22:20).
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