December 2, 2002  

HERE IT COMES—WHOOSH!—THERE IT GOES

We just celebrated the First Sunday of Advent. That means Christmas is just four weeks away. Or, to put it in secular terms, there are only 19 "shopping days" to Christmas.*

This time will pass quickly—more quickly each year, it seems. Then The Day will be here. We will have our family get-togethers, exchange our gifts, eat our sumptuous meals. And it will be over. Before we can savor the experience, we'll be cleaning up wrapping paper and taking down decorations. Oh well, 364 shopping days until next Christmas.

It's kind of like standing on the platform alongside a railroad track in a small prairie junction town that's only a "whistle stop" for the cross-country express. Off in the distance you see the coming train. It seems so tiny, and it's moving at a snail's pace, painfully slow. Will it ever get here?

But as it moves toward you, it seems to pick up speed. It's just an illusion, of course, but it appears to be accelerating as it comes closer, faster and faster. All of a sudden, the train's upon you, and it's gone—just like that! HERE IT COMES—WHOOSH!—THERE IT GOES. You watch helplessly as the train shrinks into the distant horizon.

The Old Testament is full of stories of how God blessed his people. But it also promises them even greater blessing and fulfilment, so it often expresses their yearning for completion. "How long?" is a refrain in a number of psalms. The Old Testament ends with a series of prophets standing on tiptoe to see if the train is approaching.

Then Jesus was born. As Paul put it, he came "in the fulness of time" (Galatians 4:4), right on (God's) schedule. It happened so fast—he was a boy, he was a man, he was the Teacher. Three years—that's all his ministry amounted to. Then he died. His body disappeared. His followers said they saw him zooming off into the distance after his resurrection. He made just a whistle stop at the earth-station.

So our feeling that Christmas comes and goes too fast may be a good lesson for us about Jesus' brief visit here. The author of Hebrews puts it this way:

"We see Jesus who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor . . . ." (Hebrews 2:9)

That train moved so fast: HERE IT COMES—WHOOSH!—THERE IT GOES. We wish he had stayed. But no, the train is going somewhere! And in spite of the brevity of his visit here, he hasn't forgotten us. In fact, the purpose of his speedy journey involves us, as we find in continuing to read the Hebrews passage:

". . . . now crowned with glory and honor, because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone . . . ."

He is "the pioneer of salvation" who is determined to "bring many children to glory" (Hebrews 2:9-10).

The Glory Train will be back. Next time it will stop, and the Lord will call "All aboard!" There will be room for you.

I wonder how many "shopping days" are left before he's back!

*In my youth, right after Thanksgiving, the newspaper would begin noting the number of shopping days left before Christmas. As I remember it, they didn't include Sundays, since almost all stores were closed. Times have changed

–Pastor George Van Alstine