Advent Promise

I won't do that again, I promise. 

It will be better next time, I promise to try harder.

You'll get through this, I promise to be walk with you as you do. 

I promise to stand by you. 

I promise. 

“Sometimes people don’t understand the promises they’re making when they make them. But you keep the promise anyway. That’s what love is. Love is keeping the promise anyway.” John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

Advent is a season of promise. The promise of there being a peanut butter cup behind every door of my advent calendar. The promise of having time and space to see family and friends. The promise of some time off. The promise of a day of celebration. The promise of more and better. 

This morning I woke up far too early (don't even ask) and I was reflecting on how much I want to be with my family during the run up to Christmas. I'd love to live a bit closer to my family but I am always reminded that as I followed God's call into ministry, I promised that I would serve and honour Him as best as I can, and that in the move to the far south He promised that if I was prepared to be planted where He called me to, that He would make all things well. 

But, one of the frustrations during Advent 2021 is that things are really not well right now are they? In that move, although I knew the path in front, I did not know the path ahead. Who could have predicted that within less than a year of moving I would be leading a church through a pandemic? (and in exactly three years after accepting the call (that's today I think) we'd still be navigating this weird road). We're still waiting..... 

The story of the incarnation is one of love amongst pain, amongst suffering, amongst waiting for it all to be made well. During Advent we look to Jesus' birth knowing that when he grew up he suffered the most gruesome death. Advent points to the Kingdom of God coming, but we're still living amongst the frustrations of waiting for that to be fully realised. We're still waiting.....

For those awaiting the Messiah in the Biblical story, in their frustration in the waiting, in the trials and tribulations of a life full of conflict and uncertainty, they held onto that promise of God made in love which, later was expressed so deeply and widely on the cross. 

As we await the coming King, we hold onto that promise that all will be made right - it's not a promise that is made by someone who can just as easily break it as make it, but the promise of God, which is everything we need it to be, and far far more. 

"The days are coming", declares the Lord, "when I will fulfil the good promise I made....." Jeremiah 33:14a