December 6

Longings

Advent is a season of preparation, waiting and longing.  As most kids in North America, I saw advent as a season to long for presents and special food that only comes around once a year.  I definitely did not have a clue of the sense of desperation and deep soul longing the Jews had for the promised messiah, you hear an echo of that with Simeon's encounter with the baby Jesus in Luke 2:25-26 "Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout.  He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.  It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ."  This evening, I was biking to my parents' for supper, yes I bike in winter.  Most days biking in winter is fine, I have studded tires and I dress quite warm.  But tonight, as I biked down the dark streets of Elmwood, I turned a corner only to see the red flashing lights of a train crossing. I slowly biked the block to the train tracks assuming (and hoping) it was a short train.  No luck.  Waiting for a train can be infuriating, there's nothing to do but listen to the radio or if you've fortunate enough to have a podcast, its a brief moment in our hectic well oiled day that is completely out of our control.  At worst its an inconvenience, but when you're on a bike and its -15' celsius its a totally different matter, the urgency is heightened with every passing car.  I stood there for about 10 minutes, it was a long train and I was not dressed to stand in that kind of weather.  I got a new perspective on longing...what do you do when you sit and look at a train?  You look for the end!  You look, longingly, for the end of the train so you can get on with your day.  When it comes, there is a sigh of relief.  Tonight, in the dark listening to the ringing of the railway crossing and looking into the shadows of the train cars passing one after another and feeling the cold creeping into my clothes, I longed to be on the other side.  I knew a warm home, with a delightful dinner was waiting just 5 minutes past, but with the train in between I might as well have been on the other side of the city.  I waited and waited, frustrated and getting cold, the more I looked down the dark tracks the longer the train seemed to appear.  What struck me though, was that as a Christian we long for Jesus to return, right?  During advent we prepare for Christmas, but advent is meant to prepare us for the second coming as well, to long for Christ to call us home, to a place that Jesus has prepared for those who love and trust him, to invite those in who are his family.  This is how the heroes of the faith lived their lives:  Hebrews 11:16 "they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one.  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them."  A problem at Christmas is that we can long for the good things of this world (not bad in themselves and I hope each of us can enjoy some special memories), but that longing should prepare us to long for our heavenly home--where the fires of hope and peace, joy and love will never be extinguished, a place where we will be invited into the warm presence of our Heavenly Father in our heavenly home.  That's worth longing for!