The End of Advent

This has been a challenging year for most of us. Our lives have changed in ways that we could have never imagined just a year ago. It’s easy to see that our world is in a crisis, but that crisis goes far beyond anything you will see on the news. The greatest crisis of humanity is the same now as it has always been—our need for a Savior.

Praise the Lord, God met the need head-on when He sent His son, Jesus, two thousand years ago. For many people all over the world, however, the Christmas story is only a quaint tale. Even those who know it well often fail to follow it through to completion. Like reading the first chapters of a book, they set the nativity aside after the opening act, only to pick it up again the next year and start all over.

King Herod eventually died, and Mary and Joseph brought Jesus home. Can’t you just imagine their excitement as they packed and headed towards Nazareth? I wonder if they sent word ahead to their families or if they just planned to surprise them when they walked through the front door. I wonder if they worried at all about how they would be received, or if all the pain of the past had been forgotten in light of a promising future?

Of course, as is the way with the world, one source of evil replaced another. Herod’s son was now on the throne. So, Joseph, being warned again in a dream, took the family home by another route. Did it damper their spirits to know that danger still lurked around every corner? Did they think, “Not again!” or did they move forward in faith, worshipping the God who had brought them this far?

2020 may have caught us off guard, but it was no surprise to God. In the same way, while the year ahead stretches before us as one great unknown, we can rest in the assurance that God is still in control. Just like Mary and Joseph, God’s great plans for our lives may require that we have to go out of our way, and the paths that He took us on yesterday may not always be the best route to travel today. But we can still be certain that wherever we find ourselves in 2021, in the end, God always brings His people home.

Like all baby boys, Jesus grew up and became a man. When He was 33, He began His public ministry, and was crucified and resurrected only three years later, fulfilling His mission and paying the price for our sins. When we place our trust in Him, we can have hope when we’re lonely, love in the midst of change, and peace even in the midst of problems. Because of Jesus, we can know and look forward to the end of the Christmas story when Christ comes again to reign and rule in His kingdom on the new earth where there will be no more pain or problems.

Hebrews 12:28 says, “Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe.”

Ultimately, the Christmas story is the story of Christ. It’s also a call to worship the One who left the throne of glory in order to make a way for us to live eternally with Him. It’s my prayer that in the coming year, we all seek more of Jesus, love Jesus more, and worship Him regardless of the circumstances of our lives. Jesus overcame the true crisis of Christmas, and because of Him we can be certain that He can turn our crisis into a crown.

Read Tricia’s last Christmas blog, “Worshipping God When He Doesn’t Make Sense.”