There are days in my life where I feel my personal theme song is the artistic opus “4 Minutes” by the visionary musicians Madonna, Justin Timberlake, and Timbaland. You know, the moment that you’ve been told that a letter has to get out today and it's raining sideways outside and mail collection is in 5 minutes and the mailbox is 5 blocks away and… you get the picture. “God, give my feet wings. I can see the mailman pulling up to the box and these letters need to get picked up today. Please help me cover these last two blocks quickly.” God willing, we are going to keep working in his vineyard for the rest of our natural lives, but sometimes it seems like we’ve only got four minutes left to save a particular vine or repair a particular arbor.
That’s why Advent is awesome. We get four weeks to reflect on what it means to wait. As we anticipate Christmas, we are encouraged to remember Christ will come again and that we are a people living in an imperfect world and we are to await joyfully the moment when we are to be reunited to the one who made and saved us. This isn’t a passive waiting. I mean who just sits and waits for Christmas to come? No! Reject this! Give in to the season (of Advent, not the “holiday season”)! Find gifts to give your loved ones! Decorate! Bake cookies! Send some to me! Reflect on your significant milestones in the previous year, summarize this in letter format and send it out to all your friends! You’ve only got four weeks to save the world!
Just kidding about that last part. Remember, we live in an imperfect world, and we’re still waiting for that perfection to come. So it’s ok if the Advent checklist isn’t done in time for Christmas. Something better is on the way. I mean, are we honestly going to see the Second Coming and ask for more time to complete unfinished business? “God, can you come back next week? I’m making a real breakthrough with this student, one more session and I think she’ll really get fractions.” In a perfect world, advent would be exactly four weeks long, and we’d have 28 shopping days to prepare for Christmas. In reality, Christmas will always “surprise” us somewhere in the middle of that fourth week, and all we can do is wait for it in joyful anticipation.
~ Be patient, therefore, brothers [and sisters], until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient until it receives the early and the late rains. You too must be patient. Make your hearts firm, because the coming of the Lord is at hand. ~
That’s why Advent is awesome. We get four weeks to reflect on what it means to wait. As we anticipate Christmas, we are encouraged to remember Christ will come again and that we are a people living in an imperfect world and we are to await joyfully the moment when we are to be reunited to the one who made and saved us. This isn’t a passive waiting. I mean who just sits and waits for Christmas to come? No! Reject this! Give in to the season (of Advent, not the “holiday season”)! Find gifts to give your loved ones! Decorate! Bake cookies! Send some to me! Reflect on your significant milestones in the previous year, summarize this in letter format and send it out to all your friends! You’ve only got four weeks to save the world!
Just kidding about that last part. Remember, we live in an imperfect world, and we’re still waiting for that perfection to come. So it’s ok if the Advent checklist isn’t done in time for Christmas. Something better is on the way. I mean, are we honestly going to see the Second Coming and ask for more time to complete unfinished business? “God, can you come back next week? I’m making a real breakthrough with this student, one more session and I think she’ll really get fractions.” In a perfect world, advent would be exactly four weeks long, and we’d have 28 shopping days to prepare for Christmas. In reality, Christmas will always “surprise” us somewhere in the middle of that fourth week, and all we can do is wait for it in joyful anticipation.
~ Be patient, therefore, brothers [and sisters], until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient until it receives the early and the late rains. You too must be patient. Make your hearts firm, because the coming of the Lord is at hand. ~
James 5: 7-8
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