SCRIPTURE: But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” Luke 4:43 NIV
The first advent of Jesus brought a lot of light into the world, but many people missed it. Light is helpful, even miraculous the way it exposes everything — from the beautiful, to the mundane, to the downright evil. Journey with author and blogger Amy Clemens as she explores the advent of one who said he was the light of the world…a light that shines in darkness…that exposes. A light that will make a second advent, with a power and glory no one will miss.
THOUGHT: In 1984, when Amy Grant penned the words, “But I’m caught in between the now and the not yet / Sometimes it seems like forever and ever / that I’ve been reaching to be all that I am, / But I’m only a few steps nearer, yet I’m nearer,” she had no idea that almost 40 years later they’d still be going through my head. But I feel that lyric deeply. We are caught between what we cannot see and what we can, the miraculous and the mundane, and there we toggle back and forth, back and forth, sometimes sensing the joy of what’s just beyond us; sometimes slogging through what’s beneath us.
I expect Jesus knew what it was to feel this way. From his humble birth to his final breath, he knew more fully than you or I what the ‘not yet’ was like. We might compare it to being born in outer space and thinking weightlessness is normal, only to step foot on earth and feel the instant heaviness, the pull, the drag that would constantly sap our energy and maybe even mess with our joy. But Jesus knew the joy of the ’not yet’ profoundly and made his advent anyway. He endured all that was necessary to get back to the very epicenter of ‘weightlessness’ – no more sin, no more darkness, no more tears, no more pain. Joy.
This is what Advent is all about. Remembering his first coming to walk through the mundane, without forgetting his second coming, the ‘not yet’ of our faith.
SONG: The Now and The Not Yet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DQobykZHMQ
PRAYER: Although you knew what perfection was, thank you Jesus, that you condescended to earth to endure with us awhile and teach us about the kingdom of heaven.
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