A reading for Advent: written by Christi Hagans

What is the Christmas season like for you? Is it bright and full of joy? Being around your people, celebrating, exchanging gifts, sharing meals, and reflecting on the last year. Or is it sorrowful? Are you reminded of someone no longer with you this Christmas season?

For those of us finding that uncomfortable place of holding joy and sorrow simultaneously, we are familiar with looking to something outside of ourselves to sustain us. In those uncomfortable places, many of us may find ourselves clinging to faith.

Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we cannot see. That sounds nice and polished, but oftentimes, clinging to faith can be quite the struggle and even down right agonizing. Abraham, Sarah, and their fellow Isrealite ancestors understood this well in the Old Testament.

Abraham was promised a son that would result in ancestors that outnumbered the stars when he was well past his prime. And even though Abraham and Sarah, out of desperation, took matters into their own hands, resulting in an affair and an estranged son, Ishmael, God remained faithful to His word. Twenty-five years after God’s promise, Abraham and Sarah had a son named Isaac. He was the beginning of a long line of descendants that would ultimately lead to Jesus, the promised Messiah.

We, like the Isrealites, are waiting for what is promised. We, too, wait for our Messiah to return in order that all will be restored and made right. We long and wait for a Kingdom and home run by a good God. Just as the Israelites waited for rest in their land, we wait for our ultimate rest in the presence of Jesus Christ.

We may struggle to picture this new Heaven and new earth, because we haven’t experienced anything quite like it. We can’t understand a relationship with someone that never lets us down, that never disappoints, that never hurts us (intentionally or unintentionally).

We may struggle to fathom rest that satisfies and doesn’t need to be replenished. Can you imagine it? We will one day walk and not grow weary. We will no longer strive to make it through the days, or the months, or the years. These are the promises spoken over us.

You may currently be in a season where your faith in these promises is wavering, because you’ve been walking through hard things. Maybe you’ve lost a relationship, a loved one, a job, or gained a mental or physical ailment. All of these things are so hard. Whatever your circumstances may be, despite the strength or weakness of your faith, you can trust the God we serve and the Christ we anticipate and the Holy Spirit who empowers us, to remain faithful, even when we are faithless.

You see, in order to maintain our faith, we must rely on God, the author and perfector of our faith.

Our faith begins with God, is held and continuously perfected by God and will ultimately find it’s resting place when we meet God face to face.

Can you picture that? Sitting face to face with the Christ who sits at the right hand of the Father. Face to face with the One who intercedes for us. Face to face with the One who is able to open the scrolls. Face to face with the One who holds all glory, honor and power forever and ever, amen.

This is why we cling to our faith. We hold tightly to it, even when things seem dark or unpredictable, because we know redemption is coming. We know new mercies are coming. We know healing is coming. We know the ultimate reconciling of the broken clay and the healing hand of the Holy potter are coming. Isn’t this good news of great joy?!

Just as God spoke “let there be light” in the beginning, at the end the Lamb will say “Behold, I am making all things new” and we will walk into a beautiful eternity. Amen and amen and amen.

To access the reflective recordings and the accompanying printable booklet of all five Advent readings (with bonus reflection questions), CLICK HERE.