Advent: Covid & Jesus' coming

 Happy, happy, happy Advent!  

Oh my, if I've ever been excited about entering into the wondrous season of Advent, it is this year. Today. Right now. On this first Sunday in Advent. Bring. It. On. Thank You Lord for coming and thank You for Advent!

Advent gives us the gift of considering and contemplating the coming of Jesus. We have a whole, wonderful season of about four weeks leading up to Christmas Day to think about, to ponder, to thank, and to worship God for the coming of Jesus to our beautiful but broken planet. And not only do we remember Jesus' first coming, but we anticipate with joyful hope His second coming. Advent allows us daily to pause and to quiet our weary hearts and simply gaze at the Savior in wonder and adoration for coming to Bethlehem in great humility--all in order to save us--and for the certain promise of coming again one day in unimaginable glory. What can we say, but praise You, Jesus, for coming! And come Lord Jesus, come!

Today, we light the candle of Hope on the Advent wreath.  How our world needs hope right now...and we have it in infinite, astounding abundance in Jesus. He brings hope. He fills us with hope. And He is Hope incarnate. "May the God of hope fill you will all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope." (Rom.15:13). Thank You, Jesus, that You are our Hope. 

But here's one simple thought today for what Jesus' coming means to us in 2020. Here we are stuck in the midst of a terrible global pandemic. Covid has sickened countless people across the world, has killed multiple thousands, has spread fear and terror, has shut down nations, kept families separated, and destroyed economies. What havoc this incredibly contagious virus has wreaked on our world. 

What if, however, you lived on some distant pristine, perfect, sinless, disease-less planet. But you learned that your child had been chosen to leave your ideal and glorious planet to parachute down into the midst of the heaviest concentration of Covid disease and contagion on planet earth. Your child had been chosen to make the sacrifice of his or her life in order to bring the life-saving cure to Covid--and to all this broken world's ills. You would lose your child; your child would relinquish all the happiness and perfection and joy of your perfect planet; and your child would give his or her life for people on a distant planet, even though those people could not begin to understand or appreciate the staggering sacrifice being made on their behalf.  

Which of us as parents would agree to that?  I'll admit it: I certainly wouldn't. I'm betting neither would you.

But that's not what God did. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) And the Son willingly, joyfully came. He relinquished all the power and glory due Him, all the endless joy and wonder of heaven in order to come down to our sin-sick planet. All to sacrifice His life for you, for me. All to die for our sins and, in exchange, give us His righteousness.  He died to give us the cure for sin. He died that we might be made well spiritually and eternally.

We cannot ever begin to imagine the depths to which Christ descended from heaven to earth in order to save us...but what we can do is worship and thank Him for coming. For making the ultimate sacrifice--His death on a cross--to provide the ultimate cure--forgiveness and salvation for all who believe--to defeat the ultimate enemy of mankind--sin and death--to bestow the ultimate gift--eternal life and His glorious presence with us forever. 

So today, on this first Sunday in Advent, will you simply pause to worship the King who came? Praise the One who left infinite glory, perfection, and wonder to put on flesh and move into our Covid, sin-ravaged neighborhood. He came...He cured...He conquered...and He's coming again. All out of HIs infinite love. Thank You, Jesus.

To You be all the glory forever and ever.