Doing Advent Well

I used to think that John the Baptist was the supreme example of how to do Advent right.

After all, he was the forerunner, the messenger, the advance man for the soon coming Messiah. He was first on the scene with news of the approaching Christ. I felt that if anyone deserved the title of "Mr. Advent" it was surely this strangely dressed but authentic and powerful preacher out in the Judean wilderness.

Not anymore.

You actually have to go back, much further back, to find the guy who seems to best exemplify the spirit of this 4-week season of reflection and expectation and preparation for Christmas that is now upon us. You have to reach back into the Old Testament. You have to go all the way back to Genesis. Long before any of the prophets began predicting the eventual appearance of the Saviour this man was anticipating His arrival.

I'm referring to Abraham, the great patriarch.

In a discussion with Jewish religious leaders who boasted of their ancestral ties to this father of their religion and who sharpely criticized and rejected Jesus, our Lord made a fascinating statement. Picking up on this hostile crowd's use of the name of the founder of their faith, Jesus said, in John 8:56, "Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad."

What the Lord was revealing here was that centuries earlier the patriarch had somehow visionally put it together that sooner or later God was going to send a deliverer. Abraham looked down the corridor of time and came to understand that one day God would do something so big that all of history and destiny would be changed. This Genesis man saw all of this by faith. Perhaps he figured it all out from God's promises and from that whole Melchizedek business and from that matter of the Lord-sparing-Abraham's-son-Isaac-at-the-last-minute-by-providing-a-ram-in-his-place. The patriarch's gradually expanding understanding of the grand sweep of God's unfolding future plan exploded into joy. He saw what would eventually happen only in pieces and fragments but he thrilled and delighted at the prospect.

So he was the original Advent man.

As we today move through these next few weeks we do so with the certain knowledge that the Messiah has already come. We still can use this period, though, for self-examination and repentance and times of solitude and meditation and private worship so that when Christmas arrives we are fully energized for celebration of the commemoration of our Redeemer's birth. Failure to utilize the gift of the space of these preparatory days may mean that we just drift through the dizzying whirl of parties and decorating and shopping that often accompanies this month and usually ends up with everybody being frazzled and fatigued by December 24. But carving out time each day for music and prayer and scripture can actually renew and invigorate our souls and can enable us, like our spiritual forebear Abraham, to genuinely experience joy when pondering the entrance of Christ into our world.

And of course for us Advent is also about anticipating the second coming of our Lord. That event seemingly is very close. Signs of His return are all about us. In these days of war and terrorism and economic downturn we can look forward with joy as we sense the time approaching and realize that what Jesus commenced with His Bethlehem arrival will be completed at His next appearance. Peace and harmony and wholeness will be ours forevermore. I think old Abraham may have glimpsed that too even if he didn't comprehend it and couldn't grasp how God's purposes would be fulfilled in two stages. This towering man of faith just rejoiced that God's ways would triumph in the end.

Not a bad perspective for us, either, in these uncertain days.

We can't always, with reason alone, understand what God is up to and why He does what He does. Sometimes His ways seem, to our feeble minds, to make no sense. As we worship and study His Word and commune with Him, though, we'll slowly become aware of His presence and peace and an indescribable rest and calm and settled contentment will wash over us and we'll know that everything is going to be alright.

Let's be Abraham people this Advent.