Advent Reflections {4}

The Coming



"For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger."

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

"Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"

 - Luke 2:11-14

Even though I know the story, what happens and how it unfolds, my heart always leaps when I read this.  Finally!  The Savior is here!

Just like God had promised.  Was there ever a baby so long anticipated?  Was there ever a meeting of glory and humility like this one?

Glory and humility.  The glory of the light, of the multitude of angels.  The humility of the manger and of an announcement to overlooked shepherds first.

Glory and humility, the thread woven through every chapter in this Story.  Glory and humility, His plan from the beginning.  Glory - God - and humility - with us.

This coming will make me sing and cheer till the end of my days.  My God is not distant, up in Heaven looking down on the plight of humanity.  He chose to be born as a baby - a poor one - and to walk on this earth.  He felt sweat and dust and hunger.  He smelled our trash heaps.  He wept and experienced loss and betrayal and death.  He knows this life we live, not just because He is the One who set it in motion in the beginning, but because He lived it Himself.

Because of this, history - the world - will never be the same.  Because of this, I will never be the same.

So today, I release my breath.  I don't have to hold it, waiting for the Promised Deliverer.  He has come.  Exactly as He said.  What peace, what confidence, what joy for us!  Even still, I find myself drawing my breath in again, mentally inching toward the edge of my seat.  He said He would come back for us one day.

The Story isn't over.  Advent isn't over.  Nor is it only for December; it's a way of living.  I wait, believing His promises, standing on hope.  He will come.  Like His first coming 2,000 years ago, there are whispers, signs that say it's ever closer.  Will it be today?  Could it just be?