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Written by Pastor Abby Davidson
Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down – Isaiah 64:1

Most of us have had an advent calendar before. Each day of the month you open a square and get to eat a chocolate. If you were like me you made sure that every morning you were diligent in opening that chocolate. As a child it can be hard waiting for Christmas but getting chocolate every day makes the wait a little bit easier.
These chocolate calendars are good training to prepare us for advent. Advent is about waiting expectantly. In our time of waiting we learn what it is to long for Christ. We wait for Christmas to arrive when we will celebrate his first coming, his birth to a virgin in a lowly stable without any pomp or celebration. But we also long for his return – a time when all sorrow and pain will be wiped away and all of creation will be reconciled to God.
I’ve heard many people (mostly older generations) say that they long for Christ to return. For a long time I had trouble understanding where they were coming from. It would be great to have Jesus back and all but we do have him within us… and there are still so many things I would like to do. I didn’t long for Jesus to return like they did. The more I come to understand about the world and people in it the more I can understand that longing. Every time a loved one dies or I hear about another shooting or bomb going off, I feel that longing for Christ to come again.
Christ’s arrival on this earth 2000 years ago brought with it a hope that previously had been impossible. A relationship with God that was unattainable before was suddenly in our grasp. All those failed attempts to live up to an impossible standard of holiness became unnecessary. We couldn’t get to God so he came to us. He came down into the mess and mire of a stable so that we could spend eternity with him. Suddenly, there was hope. That hope surrounds us today. Every Sunday we celebrate that hope and every Christmas we’re reminded of the absurdity of God’s love for us.
That is why we need to long for Christ to come again. The hope we have now is only a glimmer of things to come. We look forward to a time when there will be no more pain, no more sorrow, no more tears and no more death. We see a glimpse of this in the gospel stories of Jesus’ life. A time is coming when it will no longer be a hope but a reality.
Do you long for that day? It’s hard for our minds to even fathom and so we’re left to long. We long as a groom longs for his bride as they approach their wedding day. We long as a mother longs to see the face of the child she carries within her womb. We long as one who aches to be reunited with a loved one who has gone on to glory before his time. We long for Christ. That’s what advent is about.
A Prayer for Advent
Lord Jesus Christ
your world awaits you.
In the longing of the persecuted for justice;
in the longing of the poor for prosperity;
in the longing of the privileged
for riches greater than wealth;
in the longing of our hearts for a better life;
and in the song of your Church,
expectation is ever present.
O come, Lord, desire behind our greatest needs.
O come, Lord, Liberator of humanity.
O come, Lord, O come, Immanuel.