Dec 1 – An Unexpected Hour
Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.
The habit has been engrained in us since childhood: making a Christmas list. Maybe we wrote letters to Santa, asking for some of the toys we’d been seeing in advertisements. As we grew up, we addressed our Christmas Lists to our parents. In adulthood, we spend more time making sure the heating bill is paid in cold December. Even still, we have wants and desires (who doesn’t?) and we find ways to treat ourselves.
Today we are invited to begin an exciting journey; a journey of preparation as we await the coming of the Christ child.
Our preparation for Christmas usually includes baking a variety of cookies, shopping for the perfect gifts for our loved ones, wrapping them in fancy paper and placing them neatly under the beautifully decorated tree.
Unfortunately, these are not the type of preparations Jesus is calling us to make as we read our passage in the Gospel of Matthew today. While the season of Advent is about waiting for the birth of Christ, it is also about waiting and preparing for Christ’s second coming.
In our reading today, Jesus gives a rather stern warning about the consequences of being unprepared for the coming of the Son of Man.
In the days of Noah, people were going about their business without a care in the world only to be swept away in a flood. Jesus says it will be the same way when the Son of Man comes, and woe to those who are unprepared.
That’s a pretty sobering thought.
The other sobering thought in this Advent season is that the preparations Jesus is talking about have nothing to do with cookies, presents and trees.
Rather, it has everything to do with the state of your heart. It has everything to do with your relationship with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our God is a God of second chances, but there will come a time when there will not be another chance; there will be a time when it’s too late. Don’t wait. Prepare your heart today by giving your life to Christ – your whole life.
Lord Jesus, as I begin my Advent journey, may You be my greatest desire and my number one priority. May others see You through my words and actions. Let my preparations for this Advent season begin in my heart. Amen.
Pastor Tina Hosler