He Came and He's Here

Advent. 

A celebration of Christ's coming. 

An anticipation of Christ's coming again. 

But it's not really "again". 

Christ never really left us. 

I just need to know that He's still here. 

That He hasn't left me. 

Have you ever felt that way? 

In what feels like darkness to me I sometimes can't feel Him. 

So I pray that He'll come. 

But He's not left. 

The religious beliefs has this country I live in shrouded in a cover of darkness. My neighbors place their incense and fruit in front of their idol shelves in their yards. To the undiscerning heart it may not feel like anything. But it is something that tugs at the heart and screams to shut it down and stop the feeling and celebrating. Our first Christmas here in this country and the feeling is tangibly dark. My own darkness of the journey shrouds the Light. 

I'm reminded today of His Word. God's Word must be the plumb line for life and faith. I must measure all that I see and feel against the truth of His Word and who God says He is. 

Christ's first coming was in a time of intense darkness. The socio-political climate of Israel at the time of Christ made it a place of fear, dread, and darkness. But they didn't know He was coming. They didn't know that as Sally Lloyd Jones writes in the Jesus Storybook Bible,

"Everything was ready. The moment God had been waiting for was here at last. God was coming to help His people, just as He promised from the beginning. And when no one was looking, in the darkness, He came."

The world seemed out of control then and it seems out of control now. 

But God has never lost sight of His purposes and His plans. Not then, not today, not ever. 

When Christ ascended into heaven He told the disciples to wait. To wait for the Holy Spirit. His presence would never leave them. 

That's the promise for us today. My heart is travel weary today. My body is sleep deprived. But I cling to the truth of His promises tonight. I say with the psalmist,