Time and time again

Here we are again. It's another Advent. We could say this same thing about any repeated passing of time. It's another month, another week, another day. All these observations are true. There are 168 hours in a week. It's time. It's the one thing we're always losing track of. It's the one thing we're always losing. It's flying by. Advent reminds us that we are to adjust our perspective about the passing of time. Instead of seeing it as just passing by (or racing by), we are to see it as heading toward something. Every movie and book has an ending. So does time itself. Picture it. Every plane in the sky; every car on every road; every train, boat, or rocket - all are heading to the final end: Jesus Christ. He's the point of all time. There are 771 references to time that I could find in the NIV version of the Holy Bible. The first, interestingly, occurs after the fall and features a person in Scripture who represents the worst of every one of us: Cain. (Genesis 4:3 - In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD.) The last occurs near the very end of the Bible and reminds us of what we shouldn't need reminding of: we're running out of time. (Revelation 22:10 - Then he told me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, because the time is near.)

The feeling of time draining away from us is offset dramatically by the Advent of Jesus Christ. Suddenly He comes, and with His gospel He changes the nature of even death itself. He makes it a doorway to eternal life. The fear and rejection that death assumes vanishes for every person who really understands those Christmas carols and those verses from Luke 2 that are read at every year's end.

PRAYER: Jesus, you are my comfort, my inspiration, the thing I'm most interested in today. The sun and wind remind me of You. Eyes looking back at me in the mirror have a familiar look of eyes searching always for You in every person, situation, and moment. Your Advent moves me to tears and reminds me that I am alive again in You and alive forever in You. I don't deserve it. I never have. Thank You, King Jesus. This time, this Advent, make the time You give me count for You more than ever.

TOMORROW: Advent and Cancer