For many of us there is a longing in our heart for something more, something better, something that maybe we can’t fully describe or articulate. And yet it is the deepest desires of our hearts. We long for COVID-19 and masks and sickness to be a thing of the past. We long for racism and hatred to be a thing of the past rather than a thing far too common in our country and around the world. We long for death to be a thing of the past. We long for fighting and quarrels between friends and family to be a thing of the past. We long for people who use their power and position for selfish ambition rather than to serve those entrusted to their care to be a thing of the past. We long for all of the effects of the fall that are way too real and relevant around us to be a thing of the past.
It is these longings that are so relevant to this season of Advent. Advent is a time when we join our longing hearts with people throughout history. We join our hearts with people of the Old Testament who felt the same longings and a longing for the day when God would send His Promised Messiah. We join our hearts with Christians throughout the centuries who have longed for sin, death, evil, and all that goes along with them to be no more. And yet we realize that this longing will never be met through our trying harder or doing better. The solution is beyond our grasp. And yet the cry of Advent is not hopelessness, but the cry of hope. For we know that hope has come and is coming. We see hope in the baby lying in the Bethlehem manger. We see hope sitting on the throne of Heaven with all power and authority in Heaven and on earth. And we know that hope will come when Jesus will come back and make right all that is wrong. He will restore creation to that which it was always
meant to be. The Advent cry of hope is simple: “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!”
