Advent Promise – Joy!
Advent means “coming” or “arrival” ~ it is a season of attention & focus on the promises of the coming Messiah. It is a season of expectation: hope, joy, love, peace & presence of a Savior-King.
Imagine the Magi…
Joy… joy is an amazing thing. Joy that starts deep in your soul so strong you can hardly stand it. I’ve felt that joy. I will never forget that feeling of joy when I realized the time had come.
See me and my squad we were just hanging out – talking analyzing – studying like we do. We were astronomers – we knew the sky and the stars, so when I looked up and saw the great light, this great… big… star, well we knew.
We knew it was time.
We knew what Isaiah the prophet had proclaimed, we knew God was going to break through the darkness and provide His Son, the Messiah, the King. So, when we saw the great light… oh man we jumped up and we took off. We followed that star all the way to Jerusalem.
It kept going, so we kept going.
When we got to Jerusalem we went right to King Herod figuring one king would know where another one was. Yeah, that was mistake. See King Herod he’s extra. Dramatic you could say. And when we asked him where the new king was, well, he blew up, I mean he was mad. He got his crew together and told them to figure it out. They came up with the answer pretty quick – kinda like they already knew… “Bethlehem” they said.
When we heard that – we tried to slip out the side door and be on our way, but King Herod, he saw us and yelled after us: “When you find him – c’mon back and let me know”
Yeah… sure thing we told him.
Now people called us many things… wise men, wise guys, kings, magi. Some thought we were a little extra ourselves with our fancy clothes and hats. Personally, my favorite title was “king”…
that is until I met the real King.
See we followed that big bright star in the sky all the way to Bethlehem, our anticipation growing the closer we got. I will never forget when the star stopped over a house. A simple house. Right here? Right here in this simple house? Yep, the star was right over it, so we went to the door and knocked.
And there He was.
This child King and his mother Mary. He was a child, but His Presence was overwhelming. We fell to our knees and worshipped Him, laying the gifts we brought in front of Him.
Here, was a true King.
It was something special. That joy I was talking about earlier? Oh I could hardly handle it, my heart was racing, I was shaking and joy was overflowing.
Isn’t it just like God to use a huge light in the sky to announce the coming of the Light of the world?
He was a proud Father shouting out:
“He’s right here! My Son! My Son who has come to save you!”
There will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest For to us a son is given; he will be called Wonderful Counselor
From Isaiah 9:1-3, 6
