Photography © by Randy Hain
“How long, Lord? Will you hide forever? Must your wrath smolder like fire? Remember how brief life is, how frail the sons of man you have created!” (Psalm 89:47-48).
Oftentimes in this life of toil and suffering, we seem to be forever waiting. Waiting for decisions by potential employers. Waiting for test results from medical exams. Waiting for a better day when the days do not seem able to be worse. We may indeed shout out, “How long, Lord? When will I be comforted? When will I know peace? When will it be over? When will everything be okay?”
Each year during Advent, we are reminded that we await the coming of a supreme Good—Our Lord, Jesus Christ… who has already come in history and now comes more fully into our hearts if we let Him. And we also wait for that day when He comes again… at the end of time and also at our own end of this earthly life. Only God is truly Good—the source of all that is good in the world—and it is His coming for us that we await.
This season of Advent helps us to refocus on this truth and to appreciate it… to embrace it… to live it in joyful anticipation. For the Lord will come for us and we pray that when He does, we will be found ready.
During this last week of Advent, we turn our focus to the coming of the Divine Infant of Bethlehem, but we also continue to keep our eyes set for His coming again in the time ahead.
