“The advent season is a season of waiting, but our whole life is an Advent season, that is, a season of waiting for the last Advent, for the time when there will be a new heaven and a new earth.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
This year has been challenging for so many of my friends (and for me!). It’s been a season of valleys, heartache and loss and it’s left me longing for the final Advent more than I ever have before.
Oh what hope this season of Advent gives my weary heart as we cling to the truth of the hope that has already come and await the hope that will come again. That Christ, the humble, Savior King who came to rescue those who were suffering, suffered too. His suffering wasn’t reserved for the cross. He suffered His whole life. He was alienated by the people he came to save. He wasn’t much to look at…people rejected him. He was betrayed by one of his dearest friends. He was beaten, bruised, pierced, broken and hung on a cross.
Jesus suffered and did not quit. He suffered and did not grow weary. He suffered and did not become angry or bitter. He suffered and he did not respond with vengeance. He suffered and he NEVER ever sinned.
Take a look at Isaiah 53.
Don’t let the shiny things of this Christmas season keep you from seeing the truth of the baby born in the borrowed manger.
May we view this Christmas season in light of the birth, life, death and resurrection of our humble, willing, faithful, suffering Savior.
“The suffering of Jesus didn’t begin on the cross; it began in his straw bed and continued through to the cross, all for our redemption.” Paul Tripp