As Advent gets underway can you believe how quickly 2020 has gone? Although if you would have asked me earlier in the year, I would have said it was dragging!
Yet here we are longing and expectant, maybe for different reasons. Not least for the year to be over ASAP! For many it has brought misery and pain.
Time is a strange concept and it is fair to say that we are going through a very difficult year. The pandemic swept through the world, it has taken many lives, left others frail and still others lonely.
There have been some positives though! I recall hearing some statistics where people were turning to prayer, reaching out because all that they once knew was suddenly taken away or radically changed. Hopelessness spurred many people to search for help beyond themselves. This cry for help directed them to hopeful living, scarred, but now healed by the light. God answering many cries for help as people came to the one who gave it all, for all – Jesus Christ.
A recent article spoke of Advent being a season of waiting. A season of preparation. A season to be inspired. In the waiting we have hope as Jeremiah reminds us, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope”. (Jeremiah 29:11). As we draw closer to God we are inspired and are able to have God’s peace upon our hearts regardless of whether all around is falling down. We can become a non-anxious presence and share the Good news with those we journey with.
So as we wait expectantly for change and celebrate the arrival of the new born King, let us do so with a renewed joy and love for each other as Christ first loved us. Let us give thanks to God for sending his one and only son Jesus Christ. Give thanks that He again interrupts our day to day lives, as we look with great expectancy towards the greatest arrival the world has ever bore witness to, Immanuel, God with us.
My prayer for you all is that in our journeying we find God in the unexpected places. “Abba Father, we seek you in our doubts as well as our certainties, in our fears as well as our courage, in our questions as well as our wonder, and in our turning to others to care. Help us to journey on, looking expectantly to find you. Amen”.
Whatever your Christmas looks like this year, may it be filled with hope, joy, peace and love. Let us faithfully declare aloud, joyfully and triumphantly, “Come and behold Him – Christ the Lord”.
May the closeness of your loved ones, family, and friends fill your heart with joy. May this advent season shine brightly upon you all!
 | David Skeet is our church team leader. Taken from the latest edition of our bi-monthly church newsletter. |