How long?
And so, the run up to Christmas has begun… we are in the season of Advent! The word means arrival, and for many it is a time of preparing, waiting and reflecting on the first arrival of Jesus.
I love this time of the year, with the cold, darker evenings being lit by candles, fires and Christmas lights.
Last year some new neighbours moved in opposite us. The previous occupants had been in the property for many, years, and sadly both passed away.
It was lovely to see a young family come in and make that house their home. One thing they did was to have lots (and lots) of external Christmas lights. They started in late November hanging them all over the front of the property.
This week they turned them on, and ‘wow’, they are amazing… and bright! We don’t need to put any lights on in our house as their Christmas lights illuminate everything for us!
Putting up lights, trees and decorations are the fun parts of Advent. And yet, alongside this, there is a more serious side too. For some, they are longing and waiting for a better day, a resolution, a positive answer or even a ceasefire, this Advent.
Psalm 13, in the Bible, seems to capture this sentiment…
“How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me.”
The Psalmist expresses feelings of being alone, abandoned and in a low place. They are desperate for God to intervene. And yet they do have an ungirding ‘faith’ that clings to God. They can recall times when they knew and experienced God’s blessing.
You may be a Christian, and have known the goodness of God, and yet, at the moment, those days seem like distant memories. You may have never encountered God, and like the Psalmist, live with ‘sorrow in your heart’.
In this season of Advent, let me encourage you to look ahead to the coming of a saviour. There is hope, and it is a person called Jesus, born to a young peasant family some 2000 years ago.
He is the one, the only one, who can intervene and change your circumstances, as He did the very first Christmas…
God bless you :)
Gary Bastin - Hope Community Church leader