The Gift We’re Still Waiting For

The twirling of my stomach on Christmas Eve as a child often kept me awake, wondering what would be wrapped under the tree the next morning. Would it be a bike? A Nintendo game? A puppy?

The waiting was almost unbearable.

As an adult, my Christmas longings have matured, but waiting for Jesus to return sometimes excites my stomach just as much. What will it be like to be wrapped in his light (Rev 21:23)? What will it feel like to be freed from the shackles of a sin-stained world (Rev 21:5)?

What a glorious gift we will receive!

Because, if we’re honest, the burdens of this world weigh heavier on our souls the longer the years go on. We see babies die. Relationships that fall apart. Cancer that returns. And the rage in our streets and wars in the world make us long for someone to wrap things up and set them right. It’s just too much: “Lord Jesus, come!”

We need our Messiah, our Hero, our Savior, just as first-century Israelites, subjugated by the fearsome Roman government, did. They hadn’t heard from a prophet for four hundred years. We have been waiting for Christ’s return for two thousand.

Sometimes the waiting feels like forever.

This Christmas, our hearts need more than bikes or Barbies; we need healing, wholeness, shalom. We need babies who never die, relationships that endure, cancer that never returns. We need someone to deal with all that is shattered because of sin.

We need Jesus to return and finish his mission.

Whatever breaks your heart this Advent, join me in clinging to the gift we wait for by meditating on these glimpses of a new world, from Revelation 21:1–5:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more. And I saw the holy city—the new Jerusalem—descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Look! The residence of God is among human beings. He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more—or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.”

And the one seated on the throne said: “Look! I am making all things new!” Then he said to me, “Write it down, because these words are reliable and true.”

God’s words are trustworthy and true. He is coming again. This is the gift we are still waiting for.

Come, thou long expected Jesus.

Reflect:

• What do you long for Jesus to set right?
• What are you most looking forward to in the new heaven and new earth?

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, with so much that’s broken, we sometimes don’t even know how to pray because it is too much. So we just ask you to come. Come, Lord Jesus, come. May you hear our prayer to return and finish your mission. In Jesus’s name we pray, amen.

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For more devotionals in this series, see:
Article "The Unexpected Messiah"
Devotional #1 “When Love Shows Up: From Hospital Rooms to Bethlehem”
Devotional #2 “Discovering the Hope of Christmas in Genesis”

For more on the end times view, watch/listen to this Table Podcast episode.