Words of Reflection
Advent is a time of longing.
Children know this well. Those who market the holiday count on their youthful sense of anticipation and excitement, constantly informing everyone just how many days are left until Christmas. Everywhere you turn you find a barrage of lights, sounds, and sales all meant to remind us that something wonderful is coming. It’s all about the celebration.
But as we get older, the sense of longing takes on a deeper dimension. As we become more and more aware that our world is full of brokenness, the promises of Christmas become less about the celebration and more about wholeness. The anticipation we feel isn’t just for a single day, but for an eternity when God’s promises, made real in the birth of a tiny baby, find their ultimate fulfillment in a kingdom of hope, peace, joy, and love. We see glimpses of those promises, but we yearn for a time when they will be made complete. In the face of a world filled with chaos, division, and war we cling tight to our faith and the belief that something wonderful is, indeed, coming.
In Advent we find ourselves both looking back and looking forward. We look back in wonder at the incarnation and the manifestation of God’s love, but we also look forward to the ultimate fulfillment of the hope that was born that first Christmas Day. Perhaps no carol best captures this sense of longing than “O Come O Come Emmanuel.” In many ways our world is still mourning in lowly exile—the clouds of night and death’s dark shadows are still very real for us. But the carol, like most songs of lament, encourages us to move from despair to praise. Even as we mourn, we rejoice, for God’s loving kindness and faithfulness have been shown to us in the birth of Jesus, and they shall never, ever fail.
As you enter this season of longing, may the words of this carol speak to you with renewed hope and assurance of God’s greatest promises, which find their fulfillment in the One whose birth we celebrate and whose return we anticipate. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come indeed!
Scripture for Meditation:
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”—Isaiah 7:14 (NIV)
“‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah. In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Savior.’” —Jeremiah 33:14-16 (NIV)
Song: O Come, O Come Emmanuel (lyrics here)
Questions for Contemplation:
How is Advent in 2023 a “season of longing” for you? For what are you crying out to God in anticipation of his grace and intervention? What “gloomy clouds of night” are you asking him to disperse?
In what ways can you build intentional times of looking back and looking forward during this Advent season? How can you remind yourself of God’s faithful, covenant love shown in the past? How can you remind yourself of the coming day when we will know that love in completeness?
Spend some time simply sitting with the reality of Emmanuel, God With Us. How has God revealed himself as the One who is with you? How can you cultivate a deeper awareness of his presence? Spend some time asking God for eyes to see and a heart to know how Emmanuel is with you even now.