December 1

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

by Mike Allison

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQP0JsxEdPo

Waiting is hard. Waiting takes patience. Waiting takes perseverance. And it is almost never done on our schedule. It is imposed on us. We labor under it. Israel waited for the Kingdom of God to manifest itself over almost half a millennium. So long, that the waiting itself became a part of them. A part of their faith..of their trust in God.

Advent is the season of expectation. We celebrate the realization of Israel’s wait for the Messiah – at long last, he has come. Yet, we also realize that we, too, are in a season of expectation – the Kingdom has begun to break into this world but does not yet have dominion over all of it. We see the heartache and pain around us and around the world. We cry out with the Psalmist “Arise O God!”, “Come Lord Jesus!”, yet that coming remains in the future. At this point we can identify with the Israel of the first century that so longed for the Messiah and His reign. We too, eagerly await this.

Advent looks both forward and backwards…back to the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus, and forward to His return. Let us reflect this Advent season on that Expectation realized so long ago, and the One yet to come, perhaps even today.