Finding Christmas: The Best Advent of all

We prepare for the Christmas season in a variety of ways.  Shopping. Decorating. Gift wrapping. Christmas movies. Christmas music. Advent candles. I do some of those "preparations", too, but my favorite Christmas preparation is to re-read the book of Isaiah between Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

I've been reading it for so many years that I've lost count, but it never fails to speak to me. Today, I'm in Isaiah 25. 

And the Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain;

A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow,

And refined aged wine...

He will swallow up death for all time,

And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces,

And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth...

Isaiah 25:6, 8 nasb

The Thanksgiving feast we've just enjoyed will be nothing in comparison to the lavish banquet God will provide. The crowd so recently gathered around our tables will be minuscule in comparison to all the people gathered at God's banquet. It will be a celebration and all God's people will be there. 

Our Lord will provide generously, and not only what we need to survive. He will provide the best of everything. It will be a joyous party. 

Even better than food, though, God will bring death and sorrow and tears to an end. He'll remove our reproach. 

When that glorious day arrives, we will say, "This is the God for whom we've been waiting." 

All the longing, all the anticipation, all the uncertainty will be washed away in the reality of the now, in the evidence of the promise fulfilled.

As we celebrate the Advent (or coming) of Christ, let us keep our eye on the other Advent (coming) for which we wait with eagerness. 

He is coming again, and when He does every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. No more sorrow. No more tears. Only joy and celebration that will last for eternity.

Celebrating Christmas is about more than a baby in a manger. It's about a living, reigning Lord.

Christ has come. Christ has risen. Christ is coming again, and that's the best Advent of all.

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In case you missed any of the past week's posts, here are the links:  Grateful Heart: Hard Times, Red Hot Christmas Pickles and the Broken Jar, Grateful Heart: The Beginning of Stories, Grateful Heart: Blessing of Position, Grateful Heart: Wonder Pickle, Grateful Heart: Family, and Beginning the Advent Journey.


The most read post of the last week: Grateful Heart: Family.

If you're looking for an Advent devotional, you can find The Road to Bethlehem on Amazon here.
#advent #disciple #JesusChrist #comingagain

Waiting well: Waiting for the Bridegroom

A Jewish wedding in Jesus' time was not like our modern weddings. The marriage was arranged, and a period of betrothal followed. During this time, both the bride and groom prepared themselves for the marriage. The bride made her wedding garments and purified herself. The groom prepared a place for her in his father's house. He would build an addition (insula) onto the father's house where the two would live. 

Only the groom's father could decide when the addition was ready. When he gave the groom the happy news, he and his groomsmen would go for his bride. The marriage would be consummated and a week-long celebratory feast would follow. 

His servants would be on the alert, waiting for the groom (their master) to return with his bride. It was a time of great rejoicing. Because the bride would be coming to her new home for the first time, everyone present wanted the preparations to be complete to welcome her. The servants would be charged with staying ready.

In that same way, Our Lord Jesus has gone to His Father's house to prepare a place for us. Only our Heavenly Father can say when the preparations are complete, but when He does, Jesus will return for His bride. When he returns, there will be no delays. He will be ready, and we must be, too.

We are to be alert, waiting for our Lord, Jesus, with joyful expectation. Our waiting is to be as servants waiting for their master. There's no way to know when he will come, but we must be ready, preparations complete. We can be confident that, at the end of our waiting, there will be great rejoicing. 

All the preparation, all the waiting will be worth it when Jesus appears.

The amazing, inscrutable part of this is that we wait as servants but the bride for whom Jesus comes is the church. We're not just waiting for our Master. We're waiting for our bridegroom.

We aren't waiting for a destination (heaven). We're waiting for a person with whom we have a precious relationship. Jesus. 

He's coming again. Be ready.

"Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit. Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them. Whether he comes in the second watch, or even in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. You, too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect." (Luke 12: 35-40 NASB)

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Our Father in Heaven, Thank you for the preparations being made for the bride of Christ. Thank you that Jesus will return for His own. Help me to prepare for His return and to stay ready for Him. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Our Waiting Well series began a with a post on serving faithfully. Yesterday, we looked at the issue of keeping our lamps lit.