2009 Advent Devotional: December 20
December 20: Luke 2.15-20
Chris Wogaman
We have re-enacted this scene dozens of times throughout our lives—the exciting encounter with God, the news that must be shared, even by night, and this amazing moment of meeting the baby Jesus, newborn. If anything would make a person go in haste, it would be this!
Imagine seeing Jesus from the beginning, not, as we do, from thousands of years distance after most all that happened in his life has taken place long ago. The final chapter has yet to be written, that to which Advent truly points—Jesus’ coming again, to complete the cycle of history. But Jesus was young and new once.
Many of us, I would venture to guess, have a memory of what it was like to be a child, if not a baby, when everything was new: foods, books, music, routines, everything that makes up the “stuff” of life. Such was the case for Jesus as well—and people were there to see it and tell others.
In your prayers today, live into that feeling of haste to see the new baby Jesus. Temper that feeling with the feeling of long waiting that Jews felt waiting for the Messiah, and that we feel in anticipation of his second coming. What are the lessons today of haste, and the lessons of waiting?
Prayer:
Excite in us, O wondrous God, the passion of expectation, and the patience of waiting. Give us a strong sense of new possibilities, in the midst of our reverence for the old days and ways. Preserve us in your almighty arms until the Savior comes again in glory. Amen.
