Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Future Coming

 

Maybe this is a Thanksgiving cactus or a Veterans' Day cactus or an Advent cactus. It set buds as soon as I brought it in from outside in early October and took its time opening up.
Advent starts with a meditation on the future coming of Jesus into our world. Many of the early Christians expected this to happen in their lifetime and it didn't. It does no good to continue speculating on when this is going to happen. I'm left wondering 2000 years later how to integrate this expectation into my relationship with God.
I share the early Christians' faith in God's victory in Jesus. With the help of Jesus I still have some skirmishes to fight but the final outcome is settled. Advent hope. I find it helpful, then, to think of my own death as the "future coming of Jesus."
I like the thought of the Risen Jesus as a kind of horizon that draws me to him, a kind of magnet attracting me to grow into him.

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