Getting ready for dinner

Anticipation is building! My adult children are coming home in one month. I look forward to spending a few days with them, laughing together. Sure we talk on the phone, exchange emails, and post messages to one another on Facebook. Nothing, however, replaces being ‘round the table. Yesterday I enjoyed being at the table for a feast, but the food was secondary. It is the time to be a ‘family’ that matters most. There’s another dinner that is promised that I am starting to anticipate. “Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!” (Revelation 19:9, NKJV)

The season of Advent is an annual reminder that Jesus Christ came into the world as its Savior. And, the rest of the story is that He will come again to take us home to the Father’s table for a dinner that never ends. A baby born in Bethlehem, laid in a manger, God in flesh, is like a brilliant flash of lightning whose rolling thunder still echoes through time 2,000 years after the Event. Advent and Christmas bring us the message that we are not alone. God has not abandoned on this planet, scrabbling to make a life by our own wits.  He walked through the doorway of eternity and into time, humbling Himself to become a man. So, we celebrate.

However, we must never lose sight of the whole message of the Season of Advent. Christ came once and He will come again.  In your prayers and ponderings today think on this:
"Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be!  Amen."   (Revelation 1:7, NIV)

The book of the Revelation is a book of strange and wonderful visions, the story of God’s triumph over evil. After all the struggle and warfare, it ends with an invitation to dinner. How comforting. What hope.

Here’s the word from the Word for today. May this passage live in your mind each day, keeping you on the road, headed home for dinner.  "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."  He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!"  Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son." (Revelation 21:4-7, NIV)

This Advent connect the Incarnation and the Revelation; the Baby and the King of Glory.
Advent will take on new meaning - not only of remembering a baby's birth, but of hope of the King's coronation.
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Joy to the world,

the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King!

Let ev'ry heart prepare Him room,

and Heav'n and nature sing,

and Heav'n and nature sing,

and Heav'n and Heav'n and nature sing!

Isaac Watts, public domain