What Christmas can teach us in 2020.
“I’m coming. I’M COMING! Dad, I’m cooooooming.”
A few years back, my son was in the stage of development as a toddler where he was able to walk down steps but wasn't very - speedy. Especially with the steep stairs that were outside our apartment complex. His legs were long enough to take each step decently enough, but he required extra time to keep his balance due to both his short legs as well as his arms being overloaded with toys that he absolutely had to take with him to the car. Eventually, he developed the habit of saying, "I'm coming. I'm coming!" in response to his parent's repeated urgings for him to pick up the pace.
If we’re being honest with ourselves, doesn’t life with God sometimes feel the same way? We hear Jesus say, "I'm coming, I’m coming" throughout Scripture, but it feels like He is taking way too long to show up.
In the hurts and dark valleys of life, God’s presence can feel far off and too slow in arriving. Whether we are waiting for answered prayers, healing, fulfilled promises, or Christ’s second coming - waiting can be hard.
Waiting is actually one of the central points to the larger Christmas season that we in the Christian Church call Advent. Christmas reminds us that, quite often, the most memorable events in our lives come after a time of waiting.
A newborn child, an academic diploma, a wedding, a home-cooked meal, a nervously anticipated phone call, or a COVID vaccine.
But we also know that some of the most heartbreaking moments also come after seasons of waiting. Unrealized hopes and broken promises leave wounds that cut deep in our lives. Simply put, life can be extremely difficult and grief-inducing. In the words of the Cuban theologian Ada Mari Isasi-Diaz: “la vida es la lucha” (the life is the struggle). And our own personal journeys confirm this, don’t they?
In the midst of waiting, we have no idea whether it will end for good or for ill.
Waiting is waiting precisely because the outcome is unknown in some way.
Which can make waiting quite scary.
“La vida es la lucha (the life is the struggle).”
-Ada Mari Isasi-Diaz
And that is where the hope of Christmas comes in. Christmas (and the whole Advent season) is our annual time to remember that waiting can be good.
Most importantly, Christmas reminds us that our God is ALWAYS with us in the waiting.
In this season of Christmas, we are given the hope that when God says He will show up - HE WILL SHOW UP. God will make good on His promises and He will fulfill His promises.
For generations, Jews had heard the echo of the promise “I am coming” and over 2,000 years ago in the small town of Bethlehem, God did come. That event has forever changed the trajectory of human history. The birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus gives us hope and opportunity for new life today, tomorrow, and for all of eternity.
In the same way, we can have hope that Jesus is coming again. In the midst of so much brokenness, death, and darkness this year, when we are yearning for healing, resurrection, and social undistancing - our hope will be realized. Jesus is coming again. And on that day, all will be made right.
So we wait, yes. And the waiting can be difficult and trying. But our waiting is not in vain.
In this season of Advent, we are reminded that our God is one who keeps His promises. Jesus came 2,000 years ago to make a way for us out of the bondage of death and darkness, and He will come again to bring that work to completion. The hope of Christmas is not only about a God who came via a virgin and a manger but also a God who is coming again one day in the future.
To say it differently, Christmas is not just about a birth 2,000 years ago, it is also about every day since that day. And today. And tomorrow. And every day hereafter.
Christmas is about the brokenness in the world at the time of Jesus’ life as much as it is about the brokenness in the world today. And, in the same way, Christmas is about the fulfillment of hope then and now.
Christmas is about joy to the world.
But Christmas also addresses the pain of the world.
Christmas is about peace on earth.
But Christmas also addresses the war and violence throughout earth.
Christmas is about God becoming man.
But Christmas also addresses the godlessness of man.
Christmas is about the hope of all humanity.
But Christmas also addresses the waiting we all are immersed in.
Wherever you find yourself this Christmas and however you approach this holiday, may you remember that Christmas is about God coming in the midst of all the messiness and brokenness of life.
And that just like Jews waited for generations for the Messiah, we are in good company waiting with anticipation for the day of Jesus’ return as our triumphant King and Messiah.
This week, maybe you don’t feel the joy or peace or hope of Christmas. That’s understandable after the year that we have collectively gone through. But may you know that the waiting is as much a part of Christmas as anything else.
In the waiting, may you know that your God is for you, your God is with you, and your God is returning again.
In the waiting, we have hope.
