Jude 14
14 Behold, the Lord cometh…
Reflection: Advent
Written By: Pastor Jesse Caro
Living in Mobile, Alabama when I was a young boy, we seldom saw my extended family. My grandparents on my father’s side, along with many of his relatives, lived in NYC. My grandparents on my mother’s side, along with many of her family, lived in Puerto Rico. The price paid for my father’s success (he was an engineer) was being willing to live far from family… and being willing to move a lot (which we did). Every three or four years one of my grandparents would come to visit wherever we lived. Me and my brothers would wait, with eager anticipation for their arrival. I remember one such visit during the holidays. A great memory. Seems like visits around the holiday were the best.
Fitting, I think, that my memory of visits from family center on the holidays! Advent, now upon us, is all about visiting. On the one hand, Advent brings to our memory the biblical text in which Jesus visited humanity, born of a virgin… “fragile fingers meant to heal us!” That visitation is central to Christmas. But Advent, on the other hand, invites us to look forward to when this same Jesus returns. That visitation will be of an entirely different sort. That visit will be in order to set things right… forever. I appreciate that Advent calls us not merely to think of Christ’s first coming, but also his second. The work he began on the cross he surely intends to finish some day in the future. Even so, come Lord Jesus.
Prayer
Lord, this Advent season, help your people to bring to mind the significance of your first coming, and the need for the second. Bless us this Advent!
