Does it ever feel like the sky is falling in?… That our lives and world are turned upside down?… Like everything that once seemed solid under our feet is disintegrating?… What if these events are not just blind, dumb fate?… What if in them God is drawing near?…
Today is the first Sunday of Advent, the season when we celebrate the coming of God the Son into our world at Christmas. We also think of His coming as Lord of all things at the end of history; and His coming daily into our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Isaiah 64 says that when God comes into our world, He “tears open the heavens”, mountains quake, and people, whole nations, tremble at His awful presence and deeds (Isaiah 64:1-4). This is because we and our world are ‘out of kilter’ with God’s good will and purpose, and His holy presence must shake everything that is against it.
Yet the reason that God does this is precisely because He loves the world and us. He only shakes things in order to show us what is false and harmful to us (vv 5b-7), so that we turn from them to Him and find what is true, good and unshakable. He is “our Father” (v8), who made us and loves us, who will not be angry with us forever, but promises forgiveness and redemption (vv8-9). After all, He sent His Son at Christmas to do just that! (John 3:16)
He will make a way through and save us. Trust Him!
Grace and cheers, Jonathan.