Have you ever experienced Advent—a season of waiting for Christ—as a challenging time of simultaneously looking backward and forward? We are looking forward to the birth of Jesus, but it already happened thousands of years ago! How do we anticipate a past event?
Of course, during Advent we are also looking forward to the return of Jesus at “the end of the age” (Matt 28:20). We are looking forward to Jesus keeping his promise to return (John 14:3) and to the answer to the church’s ongoing prayer: “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20)
These spiritual mysteries, as beautiful as they are, can create questions for us, not to mention a bit of spiritual whiplash! Are we looking backward or forward, to the past or to the future? How can we experience both?
The answer, of course, is by experiencing Advent and all of its spiritual richness in the present, in the now. Henry David Thoreau wrote that “the meeting of two eternities, the past and future . . . is precisely the present moment.” This insight is both wholly practical and profoundly spiritual. Our remembering and our anticipating both take place in the present. We only live in the now. This is where we encounter God.
The meeting of the past and future in the present moment is a rich message of Advent—one we can live, one we can wrap our minds around, one we can ponder in our hearts:
Has God come to us before?
Yes, indeed!
Will God come to us again?
Yes, we believe!
And is God with us already?
Yes, God is with us: Emmanuel!
This Advent as we look back at the birth of Jesus and look forward to his return, let us also look deeply into our hearts and lives. God is with us. He comes to us every day, in every moment. He rests his hand upon us and encircles us with his loving arm (Ps 139:5). In this present moment of resting and encircling, all things have meaning. In this moment, we can both repent and rejoice. In this moment, Jesus is in the manger, on the cross, in our hearts, and coming on the clouds of heaven. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13:8).
God has come. God is coming. God is here. Let all the earth rejoice!