I feel I have been reminded of this in some important ways. Normally when someone talks about waiting on the Lord, my mind goes straight to waiting on that special relationship in my life. "Oh Lord, when will I meet him? When will this desire of my heart be fulfilled? I have been waiting for so long. When?" Waiting and singleness is a post for another day. This week, however, the Lord has been highlighting the theme of waiting as it relates to Advent and the coming Messiah.
I have been struck this week with just how long the Israelites waited for someone to save them from all their suffering and oppression. In my small group at church, we talked about what it would have been like for a Jew--what it would have meant for him or her--to actually see the Messiah after such a long and heart wrenching story of waiting on the Lord, from the moment God promised Christ in the garden through the entire Old Testament. After so much history, there was complete silence for a good 400 years. There had to be the feeling of, Lord, where ARE you? Then Jesus arrives, fulfilling hundreds of promises that the Jews hoped in, and yet looked nothing like what any Jew expected. Still, he did this crazy thing of healing people, raising the dead, dying himself to conquer death.....only to leave again. What? I can only imagine the Jews who actually believed Jesus was Messiah asking "When will he come and actually make all of this right? This can't be the end?"
Again, God's people are left to wait.
I have also been following an advent devotional with Passion City Church here in Atlanta, and today's passages reinforced what the Lord has already been hammering home. HE IS COMING AGAIN. This season of remembering and reflecting on the amazing mystery of God becoming man, how he coming in our lives today, is only a piece of the story. We are again in a season of waiting on the Lord for him to come, and while he is working, he also waits in longing for the day when he can "make everything new" like he promised. Yesterday in church we reflected on the passage in Rev 1 that God is the One who Was, who Is, and who Is To COME. He comes again.
This past week, some of the news I was watching left me with the feeling that our world has truly gone mad. Reminding me once again that this world is not our home. I felt like the Lord was saying that he is also waiting and longing to make things right. No more death, no more sorrow or tears. He could do all of this right now, in an instant. Yet he is so incredibly patient. He is working while we wait. Working to prepare himself a people, a bride, that love him passionately. When I read passages like, "they will be my people and I will be their God," I hear longing in his heart to have a people that are completely his without distraction. People that rejoice at being his people and who are united on love, without division or arguing. Simplicity.
I guess that brings me full circle. I am not the only one waiting for that "special" relationship. The Lord is also waiting. We have it now, but I also sense an excitement that is him saying, "I can't wait until my bride is ready and we can FINALLY truly be united in love. I can't wait until we can share with each other face to face." He loves us too much to leave anyone out, without the chance to become part of that beautiful picture. So he waits until the right time. I hope we don't have to wait as long as the Jews did the first time around...
This is getting long and I feel like I could write about this for pages. My heart is full of joy at the thought that he really IS coming back. He is going to make things new, make them right make them better. He WANTS to do this. It is a PROMISE, just like the first coming of Christ was. I hope you can have a chance to meditate on this in this season:
Revelation 21:1-7
Then I saw "a new heaven and a new earth," for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then He said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be My children.
AMEN, Come Lord Jesus!!
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