The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
John 10.10
Each Advent, I [John Piper] mark the anniversary of my mother's death. She was off in her fifty-sixth year in a bus accident in Israel. It was December 16, 1974. Those events are incredibly real to me even today. If I allow myself, I can easily come to tears over them. We buried her the day after Christmas--what a precious Christmas it was!
Many of you will feel loss this Christmas. Don't block it out. Let it come. Feel it. What is love for, if not to intensify our affections--in both life and death? But, do not be bitter. It is tragically self-destructive to be bitter.
Jesus came at Christmas that we might have eternal life. "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10.10). Do you feel restless for home? I have family coming home for the holidays, and that feels good. I think the reason it feels good is that they and I are foretastes of our Ultimate Homecoming.
Foretastes are good unless they become substitutes. Don't let all the sweet things of this season become substitutes of the final, great, all-satisfying sweetness of knowing Jesus. Let every loss and every delight send your thoughts and affections toward heaven.
Christmas. What is it but this: "I have come that they may have life." You and I, and all those that have gone on before us in Christ, have been given life that is truly life--life to the full. Make this Christmas deeper and richer by drinking at the fountain of forever. It is near.
This is an excerpt from 'Joy to the World-Daily Readings for Advent' by John Piper.
Comentários