“Then, the Arrival of the Son of Man! It will fill the skies—no one will miss it. Unready people all over the world, outsiders to the splendour and power, will raise a huge lament as they watch the Son of Man blazing out of heaven. At that same moment, he’ll dispatch his angels with a trumpet-blast summons, pulling in God’s chosen from the four winds, from pole to pole” (Matthew 24:30-31, The Message).
“What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we’ll see him—and in seeing him, become like him. All of us looking forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own” (1 John 3:2-3, The Message).
This time of year is ripe for reflecting on the past: What was your greatest Christmas ever? When you were a kid? When the kids were young? Perhaps the greatest Christmas ever was characterized by a gift given or received—like the time my uncle and aunt got me that Evel Keneval Stunt Cycle set—I still don’t have the foggiest remembrance as to what Santa got me that year. We always judge the “best ever” based upon the past.
But as Christ-followers, we really need to judge the “best ever” on the future. Advent gets a bad rap this time of year. It gets drowned out in all the tinsel, traditions and time constraints of the season. Can you remember your best Advent ever? Do you even have a list for that sort of thing? One day, every believer in Jesus will have the best, all-time, undisputed Advent ever—that day when Jesus will come again in power, glory, majesty and righteousness. “Advent” simply means “coming”—and too often we simply equate it with the “coming” of Christmas Day (how many more shopping days do I have?!).
But the Best Advent Ever will be the one every Christian will be talking about on the Other Side of Eternity. “Do you remember what you were doing that unspeakably great, joyous and glorious day Jesus came to power? Do you remember the Day we were shook from that earthly dream and awoke to His Great Reality?” That’s the Advent we’ll be talking about! Are we ready? Are we living our lives in light of that Great Reality? Do we have the faith and the courage to do that? That Day is coming! In Matthew, Jesus says that Day is real, it will happen in real time, it’s not figurative, and it will be visible and audible to the entire globe!
I love the way the late, great Bible translator J.B. Phillips put it: “The second coming of Christ, the second irruption of eternity into time, will be immediate, violent and conclusive. The human experiment is to end, illusion will give way to reality, the temporary will disappear before the permanent, and the king will be seen for who he is. The thief in the night, the lightning flash, the sound of the last trumpet, the voice of God’s archangel—these may all be picture-language, but they are pictures of something sudden, catastrophic, and decisive. By no stretch of the imagination do they describe a gradual process.”
The greatest moment of your life and mine is right now. It is this moment. Will you and I, from this moment on, choose to live joyfully for this Saviour who is coming again? Getting all warm and fuzzy about the past is fine and dandy, but it’s going to be that future event that we’ll all be talking about and marveling in. It was a very wise teenager indeed who once put it this way: “I am the Lord’s servant, … may it be to me as you have said” (Luke 1:38). Have a great, hope-filled Christmas!
About Chris Carter
Rev. Chris Carter is minister at St. Andrew’s, Parry Sound, Ont.
