Advent for Today: Walking with Jesus: Living into the Age to Come

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

This has been encouragement for the people of God for centuries as so many faithful have lived, reflecting the cross of Christ and greatly anticipating and waiting for the coming of Christ. The mantle is now ours to take up.

In waiting, it is easy to become tired or weary. This begins early in life as children wait for the coming of December 25^th. As each day passes, the anticipation grows but so does anxiety. They know the day is coming but quickly grow tired of waiting! This ability to grow tired quickly does not fade with age. The more we experience, the more tired we become. The more we face sufferings or just the worries of day-to-day life, the more anxious and weary we grow.

Yet, we receive the commission and we hear, “I am with you always,” and we are spurred onward. Something in us is moved and changes. And like the faithful ones who have gone before us, we know we must continue on, not sitting on our hands in tiresome waiting but taking up our cross in faithful anticipation.

For we have witnessed the cross of Christ. We have seen the glory of his resurrection. And we know it to be true, that he is with us always, to the end of the age.

So as we have reflected upon the first coming of Christ, the child, and are reminded of his second coming in glory, may we take up the call. May we take up his mission in the world and for the world, today. And as we faithfully work in waiting, may the grace and peace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, be with you always, even to the end of the age.