December 25 - Revelation 19: Waiting for the Day

The day that we celebrate Christ's birth - His first coming - is here. After much preparing (some meaningful, some ridiculous), the day has come and I enter it with the messy mix of anticipation, exhaustion, worry, and a deeper sense of God's love filling my emptiness. In a strange way, I come to this Christmas differently than in the past - thankful for the awe and anticipation I experienced in childhood and embracing the disappointments and lack of satisfaction I now experience in the season. I'm glad to have known the sleeplessness of Christmas Eve and the thrill of Christmas morning that the blissful ignorance of childhood gave. It reminds me that I wait for the great Gift-giver, the One who will come and meet every expectation and overflow my senses with all of Who He is. I'm also glad to know the feeling of futility and unmet expectations that Christmas brings as an adult. This reminds me that I am not to seek my satisfaction here but to wait in the longing.

As I continue to muse on the contrast that this day of celebration brings, I want to share some words that came today from a familiar voice on this blog, that say it so much better and have spoken deeply to my soul,

"I've reflected on two references in the Gospels to Jesus: "he who comes" (Matthew 21:9) and "the one who is coming" (Luke 7:19). "He who comes" refers to Christ's coming into this world in Bethlehem's manger - His first coming, Christmas. "The one who is coming" has Christ's Second Coming in mind, anticipated by Zechariah: "On that day life-giving waters will flow from Jerusalem... and the Lord will be King over all the earth.  On that day there will be one Lord - his name alone will be worshipped" (Zechariah 14:8, 9 NLT).

Christmas celebrates "God's entry into human affairs"; a world filled with tinsels and tragedy. From a Nazi prison, Bonhoeffer was challenged by the truth of Christmas, which came into clear focus perhaps because he was so far removed from the festive culture of Christmas. He wrote to a friend from his cell: "The thing that keeps coming back to me is: what is Christianity, and indeed what is Christ for us today?"

Certainly Jesus is more to us today than a cute little baby that inspires us to sing "Away in a manger". He is God incarnate, here to tell us that in this world of bright tinsel and dark tragedy there really is a new way to live, the way of the true Jesus that defines what it means to live, the way of relating in the energy of radical other-centeredness, the way of love.

But He who comes is also the one who is coming. Only with this hope can we sing Joy to the World. Isaac Watts wrote those words to be sung in anticipation of Christ's Second Coming. Only then will thorns and thistles no longer infest the ground.  Only then will this "tragic existence" (see Eccl. 1:13 NLT) give way to provide everything we rightly desire when the slaughtered Lamb becomes the roaring Lion who makes all things new (see Rev. 21: 5). The Christian's joy does not arise from the culture of Christmas tinsel but from the truth of Christmas hope, that we can live a new way now even in tragedy as we wait eagerly for the day of perfect community.

He has come!  Celebrate Christmas. He will come! Wait for the Day!"  (Larry Crabb, Christmas Thoughts email)

“Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
    for his judgments are true and just..."

“Hallelujah!For the Lord our God    the Almighty reigns.⁷ Let us rejoice and exult    and give him the glory,for the marriage of the Lamb has come,    and his Bride has made herself ready..." 

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. ¹² His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.  (19:1, 6-7, 11-13)