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One of the perks of living next to my parents is that when Dad gets out his snow blower to clear their driveway, he also brings it over our way and clears our yard as well. We had our first big snowstorm over the weekend, and we knew that our young son (who was too young to remember anything about winter last year) would be very interested to see the snow blower for the first time.
Sure enough, when we heard the snow blower coming our way, we directed him to the window, and he clung to the windowsill in excitement as he saw his grandfather on his little tractor, and watched a fountain of snow blow into the sky.
But our son doesn't have a very long attention span, and as soon as Dad finished one swath and disappeared from view, our son started to walk away from the window.
"Don't go," I said, "he's coming back!"
And then I thought -- isn't that how we are?
In John 14:3, Jesus tells His disciples that He's going away, but if He goes, He will return again. We know he's coming back, but like young children, we get easily distracted from that.
At Christmas, we celebrate Christ's first advent, but when December 26th arrives, we put away the manger scene, the Christmas tree, and all the other trappings of the holiday season, and move on with the everyday grind of life.
Not that we shouldn't get on with the grind of life, but we should do so with a powerful awareness -- the sense of anticipation and eagerness with which we looked forward to Christmas day is the same sense of anticipation and eagerness with which we should look forward to his return.
Just as I say to my son, "He's coming back," let's keep reminding one another, "He's coming back! Maranatha!"