People
of God: prepare!
God,
above all, maker of all,
is
one with us in Christ.
Maranatha!
Come,
Lord Jesus!
God,
the mighty God,
bends
down in love to earth.
Maranatha!
Come,
Lord Jesus!
God
with us, God beside us,
comes
soon to the world he has made.
Maranatha!
Come,
Lord Jesus!
We
are God’s children,
we
seek the coming Christ.
Maranatha!
Come,
Lord Jesus!
Across
the UK, people’s preparations to celebrate Christmas together have been thrown
into chaos this weekend. Having been told to prepare for one thing, preparations
made, that thing is now prohibited. A sorry tale of vacillation, not
vaccination.
In
fact, while Advent is a time of preparing to celebrate Christmas, it is primarily
a time to prepare ourselves for Christ’s return. A light at the end of a long
tunnel. But how on earth do you prepare for something you have no idea when it
will arrive? Christ comes for each of us in the hour of our death, to reclaim
the divine breath that has animated our clay. To prepare for Christ’s return
is, whatever else, to prepare ourselves to meet him then. To die well, not afraid
but as a welcome culmination of our whole life. Such preparation is not morbid,
but filled with longing.
May
you celebrate this Christmas as if it were your last. Not wishing you were
somewhere else, but in love’s embrace.
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