Expectancy

Expectancy. This is the season of Advent, waiting for the soon and coming King, waiting for the “fullness of time” as Galatians 4 reports. It is a time of new hope, new attitudes, new feelings, new direction and new destiny. That is what the season of Christmas brings, or does it? For me it does as I gazed upon the dark and starry skies this pre-dawn morning as I rode through the streets alone on my bike praising God for His magnificent creation. I made a decision that the darkness would not overcome it, the “Light of the World.” “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba Father! Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Galatians 4:4-7). That is what God did at just the right time , when we were still sinners, He sent His son into the world to make us new, transform us who would receive Him as the gift of God.

Expectancy is an active waiting. The waiting is over for those who have seen the Light and confessed their need for a Savior, repented of their sin and received forgiveness and new life in the Son. That is the Gospel. You don’t need to wait any longer, He has come into the world, a ransom for sinners, that’s all of us.

There is no other gift this “Holy-day” season. This is the gift of life. “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift” (2 Corinthians 9:15). We don’t deserve it, we are not self-made, we cannot earn it, it is all God’s, not ours. The gifts, money, home, job, health, loved ones; He made and owns it all. So as you wait in expectancy this Christmas season, receive the gift. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8). AMEN