Come Down

“O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence.” Isaiah 64:1

Our basement is a work in progress. It’s unfinished but livable. We’ve spent a lot of time down here during 2020. The basement is our shelter-in-place place to be! Yesterday I even dusted off the old N64 so that the kids could play some old school Mario Kart. Our basement would be the coolest if it were 1997.

The kids occasionally become a little too rambunctious down here. I don’t think I’ve ever actually said it, but I can imagine myself yelling, “Don’t make me come down there!” The idea being that they’d better calm down or I’ll come down to sort things out.

Tomorrow, somewhat unbelievably, is the First Sunday of Advent. As we do every year on this Sunday, we focus on the Second Coming of Jesus, the eschaton in which the Kingdom will finally and fully come. The second will be shaped by the first, when God came down in Christ. While the coming of Christ sorts things out, it does so not by threat but through love. Jesus comes down to show us that the love of God fills all in all and is willing to give itself away for the sake of others.

Advent begins tomorrow. God is coming down. God has come down. Thanks be to God, this is nothing to fear. Come, Lord Jesus!

Be well, friends. You are loved.

God, our world needs sorting out. We live in chaos and confusion. We fail to care for creation and our fellow people. Come down, Lord! This Advent, help us to see Christ in our midst. Let his love be born in us again. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Image: To the basement!