Tuesday, December 13
Isaiah 29:15-30:14 and Revelation 1:1-20
I am one of five children, and every year around Christmas one of our favorite things to do was find where our parents hid the presents and open them. We would get so excited when we found mom’s secret hiding place of gifts with our names on them. We would always carefully wrap the presents back up so mom would never know what we did. When questioned by our mom if we had gotten into the presents, we would always say no.
Have you ever seen a child do something wrong and when questioned, they say they didn’t do it? In my experiences observing teachers in the classroom, I see this happen all the time. Sometimes, our disgrace and humiliation over our actions makes us want to be untruthful with God too. We want to hide from Him or pretend like we did not commit the sins that we have.
Does your shame keep you from engaging with God? God acknowledges that we are a rebellious people. We lie. We ignore the teachings of the Bible. We only want to hear things that are easy and pleasing to our ears (Isaiah 30:9).
It is time to cast away those feelings and fully rejoice in our Lord and Savior! Isaiah 29:18-19 encourages us. In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
God sees all and knows all. Yet He still loves us so much He sent His son Jesus to be born on Earth and to free us from our sins. We are so blessed to have the written words of the Bible to show us the way to live. Blessed will be those who read the word, hear the message and who keep true to what is written (Revelation 1:3).
Just like my mom always knew we had unwrapped the presents before Christmas, God knows all of our thoughts and actions. Now is the time to stop hiding and, through faith, start building a relationship with Jesus. We all know that is truly the best gift of all!
DR. SARA CLEMM VON HOHENBERG
School of Education, CUAA
About this series
“Advent Anticipation: the arrival of our Savior” is a sampling of biblical meditations composed by members of the CUWAA community. It is our prayer that you will take time during the Advent season to read and reflect upon God’s Word and await the coming of Jesus with newfound enthusiasm and anticipation through the Holy Spirit.