Printer-friendly  |  Email to a friend

Advent devotions 2007

December 24 - Like us in every respect
By Steve Nolt, professor of history

Week's theme: Praise the Lord!

Devotional:
By today – Christmas Eve – the atmosphere of anticipation in our household is palpable. For our daughters, ages five and seven, the excitement generated by the expectation of tomorrow – expectation of seeing grandparents, playing with cousins and eating Christmas cookies, not to mention the allure of packages under the Christmas tree – makes today a time of high energy. Something exciting is about to happen!

Similarly, this season of Advent has called us to anticipate the drama of incarnation. We have prepared, taken heart and rejoiced in the promised restoration that accompanies Christ's coming into our world and into our lives. The world is about to turn!

Yet here we are, about to arrive at this place we long for, and our Scriptures for the week confront us with a decidedly mixed picture of what this turning actually entails. On the one hand, Isaiah and the Psalmist suggest that turning is merciful redemption for all of creation. But turning can also be threatening and unsettling, as we see in Herod, who turns on others in rage and murder when he finds his familiar world challenged.

If this is the sort of sobering reality that all our anticipation and preparation are going to deliver, why praise the Lord with abandon? Why is Advent unreservedly good news? Perhaps because the Jesus who comes to us is "like us in every respect," familiar with the pain and the promise, the celebration and the suffering of our world – a world that Advent also calls us to anticipate and the very world in which Christ promises to join us at Christmas.

As Advent ends but our anticipation continues, let us greet Christ who promises to turn and re-turn us by going with us into this world. Indeed, praise the Lord!
Posted at 16:13 #