Comfort and Hope This Christmas

During the Advent season, our congregations remember the prophecies and stories of Jesus’ birth. We sing Christmas songs, and we light Advent candles. We celebrate Immanuel, our “God with us,” who has come into the world as a humble baby born in Bethlehem.

Yet there is another thread to Christmas that can easily be forgotten. Like Mary, Jesus’ disciples also received an angelic visitation: “Men of Galilee . . . why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way . . .” (Acts 1:11).

Just as Zechariah, Elizabeth, Simeon, Anna, and Mary awaited the coming of the Messiah, so too we also wait. It is easy to lose track of the thread of this expectation.

Perhaps we’ve become comfortable living in a time when many of our wants and all our needs are met. Perhaps we’ve become cynical in a life where hurt, injustice, and loss are our companions. Perhaps we’ve simply grown doubtful of that extraordinary promise of the heavens parting, the trumpet sounding, and Jesus Christ descending in glory. Whatever our situation is, for many of us the thread of the Second Advent hangs limp.

This Advent season, let’s take hold of that other Christmas thread and embrace the expectation of our Messiah’s second coming. It is an expectation that brings comfort and hope.

The comfort comes even in times of grief. While the Christmas season is one of great joy, it can also be, for many, a reminder of loss– – empty seats at the table, relationships unmended, unexpected diagnoses and accidents. When Jesus comes again, he will make the wrong right and wipe every tear from our eyes.

In the same way, we also hope. Reformed Christians recognize the call to cooperate with the Spirit’s work of renewal in this present world. We know that the enemy is at work too, and often the darkness can seem greater than the light. Yet we have hope because we know the end of the story. Jesus defeated sin, death, and Satan in his first coming. When he returns, he will banish them forever.

So what do we do now? We wait with comfort and hope. Like Zechariah and Elizabeth, who confessed God’s covenant faithfulness despite decades of barrenness. Like Mary, who sang of God’s deliverance of his people through an unexpected pregnancy. Like Simeon and Anna, who waited in constant prayer for the Messiah’s appearance. 

If there is one thread running through all of Scripture, it is this: God is faithful, and he will do it (see 1 Thessalonians 5:24). Come, Lord Jesus.

May you and your family experience the blessed comfort and hope of Jesus’ coming this Advent season.