What a strange word, a strange idea. An Advent. An Arrival. How long have we all been waiting? So many years after God parted seas and spoke from the mountain. How long did God’s people look up at the silent heavens? Wondering, hoping, impatient.
The yearning of the ages. The bane of mis-belief. When you think you know, what you should’ve already known. And everything you thought you knew. Was wrong.
The Advent of our Lord.
“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.”
Mysterious, and revealed. Expected, yet surprising. An arrival that no one saw coming. And one silent night, there he is. The True Light. Why could no one see him? Why did no one understand who this was?
The bane of mis-belief. When they thought they knew. But everything they thought they knew. Was wrong.
“He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.”
Says St. John. How did the True Light arrive into the world unrecognized?
“He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
And that is the haunting question. What did his own need to receive? What did his own need to believe? How could his own people misunderstand this long-awaited arrival?
He was in the beginning with God.
In him was life.
And this life was the light of all mankind.
Yet the world did not recognize Him.
This marks the beginning of a backwards Advent journey. So that you remember. What they all should have known. The fulfilled words of the prophets came to life in the arrival of the Christ. The True Light should have been expected to Advent in our world. Yet the Word of God through the prophets also point to another arrival. The True Light continues to Advent with you. Do you recognize Him?
Until we celebrate the revelation of the Word made Flesh this Christmas, here we will revel in this unexpected, foretold adventure by the ancient words that prepare the way for our Lord. The story of prophesy. The story of every Advent.