I love Christmas. It is a season of fervent anticpation of coming glory. It has an "already and not yet" quality to it.Trees are up, lights sparkle, it is Christmastime, but not yet Christmas. The more I’ve thought about it, the more it has struck me that as Christians our lives are a bit like Christmastime. We live in anticipation of future joy, yet we are also partially already partakers in that joy. And how strange and wondrous that in order for us to take part in the glory and joy of Christmas and of salvation, Christ had to endure humiliation and suffering. As my husband is so fond of saying, we get what Christ deserves and Christ got what we deserved. And He did this out of love for His father and love for His bride, the church.
My prayer is that I will meditate more and more on the joy of my salvation, and that the celebration of Christmas would not be a distraction from that, but would provide new depth to those thoughts. God’s Word and character are multifaceted and I want to use this time of year to look at Him through his first advent. Why did he come the way he did? What will happen when he comes again? I’m going to be thinking on these things this next month and I’ll probably be posting some of my thoughts. I’m wishing you all a Christmas full of gratitude and wonder at so great a salvation and a daily consciousness of the coming joy and glory to come, where “He will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:4
1 comment:
Thanks for these thoughts. They are helpful to me.
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