We have been in that season that focuses on one day — Christmas.
The anticipation and prodding start earlier and earlier every year. We are reminded how many more shopping days there are until Christmas.
Now to add to the panic, we are being constantly reminded there may be a supply chain problem and there are only so many more days to ship things before Christmas.
Waiting for Christmas has become part of our Christian practices as well. We celebrate advent. We mark off days and weeks leading up to The Day.
We delay giving gifts until the time we designate in the season. We hide them under wrapping paper and ribbon, perhaps with a note not to open until Christmas.
We wait. For some the wait is agonizing because what they anticipate on The Day will be no different from the days that precede it. They will still be lonely, cold, hungry, afraid.
Some hold out hope for a mercy offering from somebody on The Day, but they know it will be short lived. The do gooders will be gone in January.
And then The Day comes. For some, it will be everything they hoped for and more. But the glow will quickly disappear by the cold winter months that follow.
Cynics may even wonder what was the point of waiting to celebrate Jesus’ Birth. He seemed to have been the “reason for the season,” but then He seemed to have gone back to Heaven.
Many shift into the next phase of waiting. They longingly anticipate The Day when Jesus will come back.
Is this scenario really what God had in mind? Does He really make us wait for Him until a designated day and then pull a disappearing act and we wait some more? No!
From the beginning of time, God revealed He was God With His Creation … always with them.
Jesus’ Name of Immanuel means “God with us.” God revealed Himself in human form. He gave a living demonstration of how we humans can live, knowing He is with us every moment.
Then He took off His Human body and said, “Now that you know how this works, let’s go. I am in you and you are in Me. Let’s go change the world.”
We do not have to wait one second longer to absorb the wonder that The Lord of the Universe, Who could live anywhere He chose, has chosen to live inside us.
One day Jesus will once again reveal Himself to everyone. On that day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess He is Lord of Lords. Every eye shall see Him.
But for now, He is right here with us, revealing Himself in multiple ways.
Jesus said, “Before long, the world will not see Me anymore, but you will see Me.
Because I live, you also will live.
On that day you will realize that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you.”
John 14:18-20
Today is that day. Every day is that day. Joy to the world! The Lord has come and He is here to stay!
