“Advent in Action”

I’m guessing that the young boy that sat beside me in the last row of our section at church was about eight years old. He was in the service with his mother, but it was clear that his attention was somewhere else.

For the next thirty minutes my young neighbor fixed his glare and his attention on the back of the church. He was waiting for someone to arrive, and the level of anticipation was not only obvious, it was substantial.

His eyes darted and his head spun with every movement behind us. From time to time his mother would tug him forward again, but only temporarily and most certainly with resistance.

Roughly halfway into the service his anticipation was quenched and his additional family members arrived. There wasn’t a grand embrace or even a noticeable exchange… but with others around him, the long anticipated others, everything was different.

Ironically and wonderfully our service focused on the season of Advent. A time to celebrate the fulfillment of expectations and the joyous and life-altering consummation of spiritual anticipation. Jesus came.

Prior to His coming, all of humanity sat in the back row of the church watching, expecting, believing, and trusting that hope and promise would arrive.

It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the LORD; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” ~ Isaiah 25:9 (ESV)

We have waited for Him. With expectant heart. With childlike anticipation. With single-mindedness. With complete dependence.

That He might save us; rescue us; redeem us; claim us; embrace us; adopt us…

He is our salvation. No one else. Nothing else. Eagerly. Loyally. Oblivious to distraction.

Not only did I learn about Advent, I witnessed it.

“Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

He’s here. And everything is different.