Preparing for Christmas

Two thousand years ago, before the birth of Jesus, John the Baptist urged the crowds to surrender their brokenness and pain to God and in so doing clear away any obstacle that would prevent Jesus from having full access to their hearts (Mark 1:3).

John’s message is the same to us today.  In the lead up to Christmas, we are encouraged to acknowledge our powerlessness over sin and our need for God’s intervention in grace.  With the world busily working hard to be happy time of the year – and in a year with plenty of disorientation and suffering the world over – we can still breathe a sigh of relief: that God has dealt with the disharmony and pain in our lives with the gift of His Son.

It is interesting that the words, Come, Lord Jesus are the final words in Scripture. They challenge us to leap into hope, freedom and surrender – trusting that He will come again into our suffering world and redeem it forever.

When Jesus was born, a man named Simeon lived with this kind of prayerful expectancy of help for redemption (Luke 2:25-30).  The Spirit of God had shown him that he would see the Messiah before he died.  And so when Jesus was born, he was able to take the child into his arms and confidently say:

‘’God, you can now release your servant; release me in peace as you promised.  With my own eyes I have seen your salvation; it is now out in the open for everyone to see: a God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations, and of glory for your people Israel.’’

Simeon knew that his and our Satisfaction was now at another level: that his and our Source was beyond ourselves.

This Christmas, may our Come, Lord Jesus not be cries of desperation but assured shouts of cosmic hope everywhere.  From all of us at aifc, have a safe, blessed and hopeful Christmas season!