Lord we await your advent ...

Could today be the day of His coming?

Getting up at 4am to buy a toaster, sitting in backed up traffic while trying to get to our favorite store, listening to "Have yourself a merry little Christmas" as it seems to play endlessly on at least 15 of the local radio stations ... Yep, we've definitely entered the Christmas season.

Christmas is, by far, the number one gift giving holiday. This makes the short winter days between Thanksgiving and December 25th the most lucrative of the year for retailers ... and Altoona has plenty of retailers. In fact, if there is one thing that Altoona is known for other than the railroad, it's shopping. The Altoona area's large retail district draws consumers from as far as two hours away as they shop for the special family celebrations just around the corner.

I am profoundly thankful for the wonderful retail industry in Altoona. I really think that it's a blessing to the area that many fail to recognize. However, during this time of year I get especially worried as I see the cars packing into the parking lots of the Logan Valley Mall, Logan Town Center and Wal-Mart that we are apt to forget the real & mystical meaning of Christmas. This season of shopping bliss between Thanksgiving and Christmas is the very season that the ancient church has called "Advent".

The Latin word "advenio" literally means "to come". In the traditions of the church, Advent began on the first Sunday after the last day of November and marked the beginning of the liturgical church calendar as the faithful awaited the nativity of the messiah. But for many in the church the season of advent has both the symbolic "waiting" for the nativity and a real "waiting" for the second coming of Christ. Here's an excerpt from an article that was published in "Focus on the Family Magazine" highlighting the similarities in the two kinds of waiting:

"My daughter brought home an interesting craft one day when she was about 4. She had an empty toilet paper roll she'd colored and decorated with stickers. She held it up to her eye, scanned the sky and announced she was looking for Jesus. 'Jesus?' I asked. 'Yes,' she said with absolute confidence. 'He's coming back, and I'm watching for Him.' Her certainty humbled me. Of course I believe that Jesus is coming back, but I don't have my daughter's kind of faith. Not a faith that looks up at the sky to check. Not an expectancy that says today could be the day.

Yet expectancy is precisely what we could have. The Bible pulses with it. In the Old Testament, the Jews watched and prayed for a Savior who would come and make all things right, hoping He would come in their life-time. In the New Testament, the early Christians lived with the firm conviction that Jesus would come again - any day." Focus on the Family Magazine December '07

In a world where the ceramic Santa Clause and the stuffed reindeer are right next to the nativity sets in isle 11, it's easy to start to losing faith. Do we believe that Jesus came to Bethlehem one cold lonely night to become the Savior of the World? Do we believe that he is coming again to Judge the World with his winnowing fork in his hand? How much we believe the first will ultimately determine how much we believe the second ... consider the Apostle's Creed:

"I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He arose again from the dead.He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead."

This season of Advent don't be duped into thinking that the fantasy world of Santa Clause and Rudolph the red nosed reindeer are anything like the world of the nativity of Christ. Pray that believers everywhere would truly believe that Christ came the first time as a helpless babe and that he will come a second time to rule the world.

Today:

• Pray that the people of Altoona would remember Christ as the ultimate gift to the world.
• Pray that the Holy Spirit would give our hearts a sense of eager expectation of his "second coming".