Day Four: Advent Part 2

The word Advent simply means arrival.

On Christmas Day we celebrate God's arrival on the Earth in the incarnate body of a baby.  But, this is just the First Advent.  We are also called on to celebrate and look ahead to the Second Advent at this time of year.

The First Advent was Jesus the Christ coming to provide the work of salvation by living the perfect life we should have lived and dying the death that we should have died.  But, in the Second Advent is Jesus arriving to set all things right.

When Jesus preached he freely admitted he was the King and he was bringing the Kingdom.  And these claims were (and are) legitimate, but the world we see today is the Kingdom unrealized.

What we will see on the Second Advent is the Kingdom realized.  When Jesus arrives to rule and reign "in His name all oppression shall cease".  When he arrives the renewal will be so complete that even sorrows will disappear and no more will "thorns infest the ground".

Christmas isn't just about looking back to what Jesus did when he arrived, but, if you are in Christ, Christmas is about looking forward expectantly to when he will arrive again.