We are in the season of Advent, the season of waiting and hoping,
waiting and hoping for God, waiting and hoping for the Second Coming of
Jesus. As much as we are waiting and
hoping for God, can you imagine how much more God is waiting and hoping for
each of us, waiting and hoping that we will turn to him during this season of
grace, Advent? Do you ever think about
God’s love searching for you, longing for you?
Often, when I preach on Advent, the focus is our call to be patient, to
wait with a joyful sense of hope as we anticipate the coming of Christ Jesus
into the inn of our hearts. This
continues to be an important part of our Advent spirituality.
In this blog, I invite you to experience the Advent message with the
eyes of God. God is waiting for you in a
joyful spirit of hopefulness.
Recall the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden after they ate
of the forbidden fruit. Adam and Eve
were hiding in the garden after eating the apple so God went searching for
them. Adam and Eve were nowhere to be
seen. They have gone into hiding after
doing what he told them they were not to do.
They have lost themselves in the shadows. How strange this seems. Do we not sometimes complain that God is
hiding from us? That God is nowhere to
be seen.
In the Garden of Eden account, if our hearts had not known the burden
of sin we would never have wanted to hide:
we would be out in the open and ready to walk with God. And then God asks the question of Adam and Eve: ‘Where are you?’ He is the one who begins the search. We think of ourselves as searching for God and
forget that it is God who is searching for us.
Why should God bother to do so?
Simply because HE LOVES US. He
has been searching in every century -- throughout the Old Testament times until
he came at last with a human heart that could suffer for want of our love.
In the Advent season, Jesus invites us to come out of hiding and to
walk with him: his suffering has earned
us forgiveness of sin. “Where are you?” We can see the intimacy that God wants
between Him and us in the first Scripture reading today. From Isaiah:
“Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs,
carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.”
Imagine being held in the arms of God and leaning against his
breast! This is the intimacy God wants
between you and him. So during this
season of Advent, let us ask ourselves is there anything keeping us and God apart? Is any sin of any kind in our lives keeping
us separated from God?
Also in the first Scripture reading, we hear a beautiful prophecy about
God liberating the Jews from captivity in Babylon:
“Prepare in the
wilderness a way for the Lord.
Make a straight
highway for our God across the desert.”
That prophecy has great meaning when we apply it to our own
hearts. It is in our hearts that we need
to prepare a way for the Lord. It is in our
hearts that we need to make a straight highway for God. It is the valleys of sin in our own hearts
that are to be filled with God’s mercy and healing.
In the second Scripture reading from Peter: “The Lord is patient with us, not wishing
that we should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a
thief.” This Scripture gives us a
warning. God is patient with us now in
order to give us time to repent but the time for repentance will not last.
We are living now in this time of mercy when we have the opportunity to
repent. Let us receive as much grace as
we can from God during this time of Advent.
The Lord has no limits to what he wants to give us. It is we who put limits on what He wants to
give us.
God's
God is searching for us and wants to hold us against his breast. “Like a shepherd he feeds his flock: in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying
them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.”
Will you allow God to pick you up and hold you?
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