Can it be Christmas next week?  Surely, the year has not flown by as quickly as it feels it has. This isn’t a dream, though, like the one where you wake up on Saturday feeling like it’s Monday and you’re late for something. Other people’s calendars seem to be the same as mine. So it must be true. Christmas is just a week away. Ready or not, here comes Santa!

The old adage that time goes faster as we age is a truism. It literally feels that way, and for good scientific reason. As we age, each day, week, month, and year becomes a smaller and smaller percentage of our lives. When we’re ten, a year is one tenth of our entire life – and it feels more significant than when we’re fifty and a year is just a fraction of that again. Every bit of time we can measure becomes smaller and smaller as a part of the whole. Because our perspective changes, it feels faster. 

So when we hear the Psalmist say to God, “in your sight a thousand years are but a day,” I get it. God’s been around a long time. What’s a hundred or a thousand years in a life of eternity?  Not much. Comparatively, it’s like the last five minutes, when I was writing that first paragraph.  It flies by so fast it feels insignificant. And yet it’s not. It’s integral to what comes after, to this moment, this word, and this punctuation as I write it. 

We have talked in this season of Advent about the aspect of waiting for Jesus’ return. That’s really what our heart yearns for. As adults, anyway. As kids, it’s the anticipation of Jesus’ birth that gets us excited. Or maybe it’s the return of Santa. Either way, Christmas Eve is one of the longest days ever, when we’re young. Now that we’re older, it is the hope for the promised peace, justice, and all that comes with the Kingdom of Heaven that we can’t seem to wait for any longer. It’s been a long time that we’ve been waiting. And yet it’s been a couple of days using at least one scriptural measurement.  

This current period of unrest in our nation makes me yearn for Jesus to come back before things get much worse. It’s a painful time, no matter what your news outlet of choice or political party may be. It’s a cringe-worthy cycle we’re in; one that seems to be bringing more darkness, instead of making things brighter. I can’t say much more than this, because it’s such a dark time that my words will ring hollow and laden at the same time. One of the things that many of us share, despite our differences, is the pain of this political season. It’s like a long, cold winter, and I am ready for spring. Maybe it will arrive tomorrow. I just hope it’s our tomorrow, and not God’s tomorrow.

As this season of Advent winds down, we likely have several sources of unrest and pain in our lives. There are undoubtedly loved ones who are sick, or maybe we are. There is uncertainty about the future around careers or finances. There is the stress of caring for children, or parents, or both. There is the grief of a holiday season without a loved one. We want what the prophets foretold, what the church dangles before us each Advent; we want God to make good on God’s promises.  

The Good News, literally, is that God is doing that very thing, right now, in our midst. Instead of rushing by, it’s like a slow-motion replay. Those promises are being fulfilled though, I assure you. The events we’ve been preparing for remind us that God is with us, literally; that there is light in the darkness that will never go away. We trust that God will finish this work at some point. December 25 is just a week’s worth of days away on our calendar. Christ’s return might be too. Whether it’s seven days or seven DAYS, all we can do is keep the faith, share the light, and love as we have first been loved. The rest will, undoubtedly, take care of itself. Ready or not, Christmas is coming.  

Tom+

God for whom we watch and wait, you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son:

give us courage to speak the truth, to hunger for justice, and to suffer for the cause of right, with Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.                                     

Church of England Collect #2 for Advent 3

Photo Credits:  Advent Calendar, pinwhalestock, via Pixaby.com.  Tired Uncle Sam, Public Domain, via goodfreephotos.com.