The long wait for Jesus

"I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope." Psalm 130:5

Sometimes I think I must live under a rock or something. I've been reading references lately to Christmas being "controversial" amongst Christians and at first I thought "HUH???" I mean I know that JW's don't celebrate Christmas, but there are real, actual Christians who think it's wrong to celebrate Christmas?? Okay.....

Well, I for one am going to go on record as coming down on the side of Christmas. Christmas good.

Yes, ok, I know that commercialism and secular trappings have all but obscured the true focus of the day, but there IS a reason why we continue to celebrate Christmas folks. And I know that you're thinking that it's because it's Jesus' "birthday"...but that's not really the reason either.

We celebrate the day of the Saviour's birth because it is a reminder that God keeps his promises.

Do you remember when God first promised a Redeemer to fallen mankind? It was back in the Garden! (Genesis 3:15) Adam and Eve had God's promise that her offspring would restore them to their former relationship with God. I wonder if they were disappointed when their children were born and one after another they realized that this one too was not the promised Saviour? Still, disappointed though they may have been, the hope of the Saviour didn't die with Adam and Eve. The hope was passed on down through the generations, and even when there was only one man and his family on the earth who trusted God's promise, yet the hope lived on. How many years passed between that first promise and the coming of the Messiah? I don't know off the top of my head. I suppose I could google it and find out exactly, but it was, what - maybe four or five thousand years? A long time, anyway. If after all that time you decided to give up on the promise, really who could blame you? And many did give up.

But then along came Jesus.

Here we are some 2000 years after Jesus' first coming. We are in the season of Advent, waiting for Christ's return. And it has been a long wait. There are so many times when I've looked at the world around me and wondered, "Why do you tarry, Lord?" Sometimes I get discouraged too...but not discouraged enough to give up on the promise. I'll never give up on that promise.

It's not that I'm better or more faithful than those who gave up. It's because of Christmas, you see. Each Advent I wait, and each Christmas hope is renewed. Christ has come. God keeps his promises.

Jesus is coming again - this He promised. Until He comes, we wait, and while we wait we celebrate Christmas as areminder that God keeps his promises.