Waiting for Christmas

There’s a day coming when the mountain of God’s House will be The Mountain— solid, towering over all mountains. All nations will river toward it, people from all over set out for it. They’ll say, “Come, let’s climb God’s Mountain, go to the House of the God of Jacob. He’ll show us the way he works so we can live the way we’re made.” He’ll settle things fairly between nations. He’ll make things right between many peoples. They’ll turn their swords into shovels, their spears into rakes. No more will nation fight nation; they won’t play war anymore.    Isaiah 2: 2-5

Are you looking forward to Christmas?  Let me see if I can guess why.

You'll get some time off school.

You might get to see some family you haven't seen in a long time.

There will probably be a tree in the house and beautiful decorations everywhere.

You look forward to a delicious Christmas dinner. You might look forward to Brussels sprouts (I do, but I may be on my own there!)

And what am I forgetting? Oh, yes, of course, presents! We love to give and receive presents.

Well, the waiting can be tough. There are still 2 days to go until Christmas.  But if you are really hoping and looking forward (especially if you are young) that can seem like 2 years.

Most of the people mentioned in the Bible had to wait. The reading above is from the prophet Isaiah, who described a wonderful future time of peace in the world someday. It's a time that seems far off when we hear about the wars in our world and fighting all over the world. But Isaiah has a message from God that it won't always be that way. This is what he says: in the future God will settle arguments between nations. They will pound their swords and their spears into rakes and shovels; they will never make war or attack one another again. It's a wonderful message. 

In this future, people will want to live the way God intended them to live. God will transform their hearts and teach them how to love. There will be no more war; in fact weapons will be turned into tools to grow food for the hungry.

Some of that has begun to happen for us. Jesus came and showed us that, by trusting in Him, we would live the kind of life that is full of love for other people. The One whose name means ‘God with us’ has come and is already changing some. There are now people who show His love by working to stop wars, to bring peace and to bring together people who have been enemies.

God so wanted this kind of change for us and the people around us that He sent the most precious thing He had – Jesus – to show us what real love is.  Jesus came to clear out all the mistakes and mess ups we have done so that, trusting in Him, we might get ready for this new way of life that God has planned.

We’re waiting for Christmas. It’s still 2 days away but it’s coming closer. We’re waiting for things to happen. Sometimes we have to wait for the school bus. Sometimes you have to sit in the waiting room for your dental appointment. That’s no fun. You don’t mind waiting a long time for that.

Sometimes you have to line up and wait to see a movie. That’s a hard kind of waiting. Waiting for the bell to ring. Waiting for dinner because you’re hungry. Waiting for the Internet – it can still sometimes take a long time before you can finally download something.

At this time of year, those of us who follow Jesus are waiting for something special too. We’re waiting for Jesus once again. We all know how Jesus came the first time: as a baby in a manger. But now we wait for Jesus to make all things whole again. To put this broken world right.

And, while we wait for everything to get sorted, we want to live as if it had already happened, to show others and remind ourselves what this new world will be like. 

Merry Christmas!