A few weeks ago, I sat on a beach in Cancun very early in the morning, anticipating the sunrise. As I arrived at the shoreline, I was a bit disappointed to find a thick cloud bank hugging the horizon, obscuring the view of the hoped-for orange ball peeking up from the ocean. The initial light was pale yellow, not the bright salmons and pinks I had gotten up early to see. As the sky slowly brightened from behind the cloud bank, a woman rose from her lounge chair nearby and huffed off the beach, grousing loudly, “Well that was a complete fail of a sunrise!”
I stayed, and I’m glad I did. Because after about five minutes, the top of the cloud bank began to glow a vibrant yellow, almost appearing as though someone traced it with a cosmic highlighter. Several seconds later, radiant beams burst in every direction through thin breaks in the bank. The effect was stunning. For several moments, the sky boasted an eruption of color and light. If only that woman had waited!
Behind the Cloud Bank
God’s people are a waiting people. Jesus came to earth once, and before that, those in ancient Israel waited for his arrival. Like the promise of a sunrise, God delivered. It took thousands of years, and heaven knows the cloud bank of oppression and trial obscured the promise. Still, year after year, God’s people waited, monitoring the prophecies, living every day in vigilant expectation. King David was among them. He sometimes became frustrated, wondering if the day would ever come. He wrote in Psalm 13,
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, “ I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
David longed for the consolation of Israel. He anticipated the Messiah’s coming every single day. God had promised it. But sometimes the circumstances in the waiting, like a cloud bank at sunrise, obscured the promise. However, David never stopped at lament. He finished the Psalm with, “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.” David did not storm off the beach of God’s promises. He stayed. He had to wait for heaven to see the Messiah, but see him he did, and while he waited he remembered God’s steadfastness, holding fast to the promises God gave. Even as he stared into the horizon at a pale yellow sky and a thick and frustrating cloud bank, David waited in faith that eventually God’s promise of a Savior would be fulfilled.
As Sure as the Sun Rise
Now we Christians are a waiting people too. Christmas is the time of year when we remember and celebrate the marvelous sunrise of Christ’s incarnation. Jesus came once, fulfilling every single prophecy that told of his coming. Isaiah prophesied, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone” (Isaiah 9:2). Roughly seven centuries later, that light burst onto earth’s scene, heralded by the light of a star (Matthew 2:2) and illuminated by a “company of angels,” lighting up the night sky with the “glory of the Lord” (Luke 2:9 and 13). The long awaited Messiah had, indeed, come, just as God promised.
And now we wait for his return. After Jesus ascended to heaven, the cloud bank returned to hug our horizon. We live in the agony of waiting in a world of hatred, death, and varying degrees of trial. But we will not storm off of the beach, calling the promises of God “complete failures.” Though for now, trials and suffering obscure the anticipated promise of Christ’s return, we do not join with the “scoffers,” quipping, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3:4). Like David and all of the ancient Hebrews, we lean into God’s full assurance that, as the sun rises each and every day, bathing human beings in the warmth of his common grace, Jesus will return.
For those of us who have put our faith in Christ, his return will be the apex of delight. Our steadfastness in the waiting will be rewarded, as the light of Christ bursts through every morsel of darkness that remains on the earth. But for those who stormed off the beach, the regret of rejecting the truth of God’s promises will be the apex of disappointment and pain. C.S. Lewis said, “Jesus produced mainly three effects: hatred, terror, adoration.” Hatred from those who want to go their own way, terror to those who are caught in that final sunrise without the covering of Christ, and adoration from those of us who have long awaited that sunrise, basking in its glow and collapsing with relief at its finally appearing. “O Come Let Us Adore Him” will be our response to the radiance of his coming!
Worth the Wait
If you have not put your faith in Christ, if you are among those who reject this strange, but true, doctrine, I urge you to rethink your choice. Because Jesus is coming. Like the sunrise, his light will burst forth, suddenly, spectacularly, and most assuredly. It’s only a matter of time. Stay on the beach. Watch the horizon. “For to us a child [was] born, to us a son [was] given; and the government [is] upon his shoulder, and his name [is] called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). God’s promises have not and will not fail. Though for now, the cloud bank stubbornly clings to the horizon, it will be worth the wait.