Devotional 12-4-17

Are You Ready for Christmas?

2 Peter 3:8-15a
Are you ready for Christmas? That’s the question you’ll probably be asked a hundred times already during this season. It’s a good question. We can take it in its purest sense: “Are you ready for the coming of Christ?” After all, Christ’s coming is at the center of our celebration. And Christ’s coming is the determining factor in how we live our lives—not only his first coming, but his second coming. That’s Peter’s message to his church: “Are you ready for the coming of Christ?”
Peter makes at least three observations about Christ’s coming that will ready us for this Advent season.

I. God’s Watch Keeps a Different Time
God made time and stands outside it. That’s why a thousand years is as one day and one day is as a thousand years.

Samantha started asking how long it was until Christmas back during the summer — and has been formulating her wish list since then also.  As a child, I remember it seemed like years between Thanksgiving and Christmas!  But God works according to God’s watch, not ours. When Jesus arrived in a stable, the timing caught even most of those looking for a Messiah off guard. Jesus’ advent occurred at the precise time God decided.

Christ’s second coming will be according to that same timing. Not when we expect or when we deem appropriate, but in God’s perfect timing.

II. God’s Tendency Is Patience - ours is impatience.
Just stand with me in a checkout line, especially during the Christmas rush, if you want to see what impatience looks like.  But God is patient - patient with us, and patient with the world. While many of us might like to see Christ’s second coming today, God waits, providing an opportunity for more people to respond to his love. Even in Jesus’ life, God displayed patience. He allowed Jesus to be born as a baby, waiting thirty years for him to become the man we came to know as the Christ. God’s tendency is patience.

III. God’s Surprise Entrance Calls for Readiness
Peter warns that the second coming will be a surprise. Like a thief in the night, Christ will come as an unexpected and, in many cases, uninvited Savior. Just like his birth, Jesus’ next coming will catch many by surprise. Peter says, as we anxiously await his arrival, our lives ought to be holy, godly, spotless specimens of purity. The ethics of Christianity are based on this eschatological surprise. Peter says we ought to live today as if it were our last because it might be! Every day is a constant recommitment to holy living because today just might be the Day. During this season when someone asks you, “Are you ready for Christmas?” take the question in its fullest sense: “Are you ready for the coming of Christ?”

Rev. Alan Williams