Approaching Christmas with Love - Day 1Lisa Borden - 20 Dec 2010

Advent: coming or arrival.

The Advent Season is about anticipating the arrival or birth of Jesus. 

Anticipation: looking forward to, expectation of; foreknowledge.

Yet there is something more than just a looking forward to or an expectation in our Advent, and in that original Advent Season more than 2,000 years ago.   Far deeper than expectation, there is longing--deep, soul-aching longing.

Longings…  Sometimes they are things we feel so deeply we can’t even speak of them.  Sometimes they hurt as they lie silently there.

What are some of things we long for?  It’s pretty obvious, really.  We long for meaningful lives, peace in our time, a healthy economy and a thriving earth.  We long for food, water, shelter and education for all.  We long for cures to every form of cancer, to HIV, to the crippling social ills that stalk our cities.  We long for freedom.

The Children of Israel were longing as well.  Under the control of the Roman Empire, they longed for the self-respect and self-government of political freedom.  They longed to be their own successful, secure and significant nation. 

These would have been their communal longings, but as individuals, I’m guessing their longings were just like ours.  We’re longing for so many things, but at the most basic heart level, we’re longing for love.  We’re longing to know and be known.  We’re longing for someone to peer past our foibles and failures into our true selves and smile at what they find there.  

Love…  How totally messed up our images of it have become.  Hollywood,  Bollywood… blech!   These representations that we find in the mediums of our culture are, truly, rubbish.

So, here we are, a people who, from ages past till now, are heartbroken and looking for the real deal.

Well, it turns out that God is longing for love too.  In the expansive heart of God, though the already Trinity shares perfect love together, there resides another longing—the longing for love shared with us.

God is longing for love with us and so he has acted on his desire. 

For God so loved us, he sent his son. 

His son is the Word that was with God from the beginning; the Word that became flesh that he might dwell among us.  This One is Love.  In I John 4 we read,  “God is love.  This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world…”

Jesus is the Word.  The Word is God.  God is love. 

Our longing for true love and God’s longing to express his love for us, meet in the person Jesus.

And so it is that our deeper than deep ache for the most real love is actually a longing for Jesus. 

This True Love casts out fear.  This True Love covers over a multitude of sin.  This True Love never fails.  

Charles Wesley, almost 250 years ago, penned it well.

Come, Thou long expected Jesus,
Born to set Thy people free.
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth, Thou art.
Dear Desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Our liberator, defeater of fear and sin, our rest, strength, comfort, hope, joy and dear desire… Jesus!

As we wait for Christmas, the celebration, the feast and the wonder of an incarnate God 24-7 Prayer will be posting a series of reflections to help us to wait well. We have asked friends from across the movement and around the world to creatively express themselves and focus us on the coming of Christ. During the final week of advent, as the anticipation of the arrival of Jesus builds we are encouraged to wait with Love.  Follow along with the 24-7 Prayer 'Approaching Advent' Calendar.