Words of Reflection
Advent is a season of both looking back and looking forward. It is both remembering and waiting.
We look back to a garden and the story of humanity’s pride and humanity’s fall. We remember sorrow and shame, and we see paradise seemingly forever out of our grasp. We remember and we grieve.
We also look at back to the promises of God revealed in his word: that a day would come when our brokenness would be met by his wholeness. We sit with the reminder that humanity is not alone, and that our sin does not have a hold on us forever. We dwell with texts like Jeremiah’s proclamation:
“‘This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ says the Lord: ‘I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,’ says the Lord; ‘for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.’”—Jeremiah 31:33-34 (NRSV)
We also look back to the day when this “new covenant” of Jeremiah took on flesh and bone in a Bethlehem stable. We gaze in wonder at the newborn babe who has come to write both God’s law and God’s love on our hearts in such a way that we do, indeed, come to know the Lord. And we look back in awe remembering that this tiny infant Jesus will later die so that our iniquity might be forgiven. The gates of paradise are no longer sealed. In the words of the carol, “He hath opened heaven’s door and we are blessed forevermore.”
But even as we look back, we also look ahead. We look ahead because we know that the Kingdom proclaimed by that same Jesus has not yet come in its fullness. We feel the weight of sin and death all around us, and the shadows at times threaten to overwhelm us. The world is still broken, but the day is coming when it won’t be. We look ahead…and we wait.
Waiting is hard. But in this waiting we are able to identify even more with the generations of God’s people who waited for the Promised One. They, too, grieved. They, too, cried out, “How long?” They knew the promises of God, and that at times it takes everything we have to hold onto them.
But they held on, and so do we, strengthened by the reminders of God’s promises fulfilled and God’s hope proclaimed. We look back and remember. We look ahead and wait. We live in gratitude for what God has done, we are still anticipating what he will one day do.
Scripture for Meditation:
“I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”
—Psalm 27:13-14 (NRSV)
“For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end and does not lie.
If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.”
—Habakkuk 2:3 (NRSV)
Song: We Wait For You (lyrics here)
Questions for Contemplation
Are you in a season of waiting right now? What are you waiting for from God? Or is there perhaps someone you know who is waiting “to see the goodness of the Lord?” How does this season of Advent form your understanding of waiting? How are you being led to pray for yourself and others as we wait for God’s final consummation of his kingdom work?
How can intentional remembering refocus you in seasons of waiting? What helps you to sit with the promises of God both fulfilled and yet to be fulfilled? What practices or resources help you keep those promises always before you?
Not many Advent/Christmas songs devote such specific language to the cross and the empty tomb as this one does. How do you respond to that third verse? Do you receive it or resist it? How might your reponse to it stir you to prayer?