I longed for Christmas morning when I was a child. It wasn’t just the food or time off from school, though I delighted in those things. It was really about the gifts. I knew on Christmas morning that I got to tear into a stack of presents my parents had picked out just for me – and I longed for that moment.
My parents caught me one night when I was seven or eight trying to get into the room where they stored the unwrapped presents. When they asked me what I was doing, I told them I was looking for a Star Wars action figure that I just knew I was getting. As you might expect, they sent me right back to bed. I didn’t remember any of it in the morning. In fact, I only remember it now because my parents told me the story the next morning. It turns out that I was sleepwalking. Even in my sleep, I was longing for the satisfaction of Christmas morning.
This longing for Christmas morning is the story of the Bible. The creation groans under the weight of sin (Rom. 8:22-23). The whole world, including us, longs for the day that someone will come and restore what sin has stolen. The Old Testament overflows with this longing. The prophets longed for a son of David who would rule justly (Isa. 9:6-7). They longed for a savior who would wipe suffering away from this world (Zeph. 3:14-20). They longed for one who would raise the dead (Dan. 12:1-3). They were longing for Christmas morning.
I’ve never heard a Christmas sermon on the genealogy in Matthew 1:1-17, but what a sermon it would be! Because that long list of names is like gifts under the tree. After years and years of longing, at last a child was born. A child was born in the line of David. A child was born who would finally satisfy the deepest longings of God’s people. Jesus’ birth isn’t a sentimental story; it’s the satisfaction of all our deepest longings.
Advent is the time where we as a church think back on this child’s birth. So it is the collision of two different emotions:
1. It’s a season of satisfaction – I long for all the same things that the church before me has longed for. I long for a King who will rule in righteousness. I long for a world that is free of sin’s corruption. I long for a new, glorified body. Advent reminds me not only that these things will come, but that they have come. Jesus has come to us – to me and to you. Advent is a time where I look back and praise God for satisfying my longings in Jesus.
2. It’s a season of longing – Jesus has satisfied all of my deepest longings, but still I’m waiting to take possession of them. I’m waiting for Jesus to come again and finish what he started at first. Advent is a time when I look forward and long for the day that the gifts of Christ will finally and fully be mine.
I am excited to go into this season together. My prayer for us is that it will sustain our faith in the present and enkindle our hope for the future. To us, a child has been born.
In Him,
Tom