"A Bride In Waiting" by franticflagwave

Today is Christmas Eve 2009 and temperatures show the promise of rain for our holiday here in Georgia. Preparations for the season were much different for me this year, as I chose to be more creative in my gift giving. I’ll be honest, I don’t enjoy all the mania I see in the the market places this time of year. Individuals that are forced of necessity to have to serve there, I’m sure think and feel as I do. Yet, I realize that the merchants of the earth are dependant on this jolly ho ho fantasy to fill and feed their financial coffers to get through the end of their fiscal year in the black. In my reflections I wonder how we ever got to this place of making Christmas such a paganized experience. In order to be more politically correct, clerks find themselves fearful of even mentioning the name of Jesus or offering a Christmas blessing to any who patronize their stores. More and more the world is becoming offended by the message the Christmas story brings. Two thousand years ago at the time of our Saviors birth no one had ever heard the term “Merry Christmas.” The people of that region of the world were wrapped in the traditions of men that evolved around many of the Jewish holidays and festivals. The world then wasn’t much different than it is today, over run by rampant sin, greed and a pervasive darkness, The prophets from the time of Genesis foretold of a promised King who would come in the name of redemption. Men had grown weary in the waiting and began to doubt the promises of God concerning the Messiah, much like the Israelites did as they awaited the return of Moses from his vistation with God on a mountian to receive the ten commandments. Their impatience with his return led to reckless abandonment in their thinking and conduct. They had grown weary in well doing and decided they wanted a tangible god, one made after their own perceptions of who and what god was. Moses returned from his mountian top experience to find God’s people filled with a party spirit worshipping a golden calf. On the night of Jesus Christ birth in Bethlehem the world was still in party mode and again wearied in the waiting of their promised King. They had no idea that the God of Heaven was about to visit the earth just as He promised. But this time in the form of a babe lying in manger. The world hadn’t expected their King to arrive by such humble means as having one born in a stable. Once again God resist being placed in the box we humans love to make for Him. What on earth would the world do with an infant King? It was a glorious night for those who had the eye’s of faith to witness our Savior’s birth. But for those who lived in unbelief, it was just another night, like so many others. History tells us, that the world rejected the “Promised One,” not unlike the spirit that works in our world today. Christ is still rejected and scorned of men, as they pursue their life of reckless abandonment to sin. We know that Jesus Christ came for redemptions purposes two thousand years ago and in the years since through his redemptive work he is building an Eternal Kingdom that will reign with Him both in Heaven and on the earth. Today the church is a “bride in waiting,” not for a revisitation of a child to a manger, but for the perfect, spotless “Lamb of God” who will one day return in the same manner in which He left, to receive his bride. I’m eternally grateful that I’m counted among those who are awaiting the return of the Savior to the earth. Two thousand years is long time to wait for the husbandman in human years, but with God, it’s only been a couple of days. Our Savior will return just as He promised and we as Christians are to keep watch in “hopeful expectation” of His return, just as the faithful did on that cold December night that Jesus Christ was born. My final question is, are you a bride in waiting this Christmas?

Written By: Barbara A. Carlan 12/24/2009 John 3:16