Ahh, the future. Now this is a post I cannot write with any earthly certainty, because none of us can know what a year will bring. When I look back at 2014, I see a year I never expected. Family and dear friends have lost loved ones, we’ve traveled more than we planned, saw a son get engaged to the love of his life, and faced many trials and struggles. And yet, life is good. God is good. And we look ahead with joy to 2015. If I could predict my earthly future, I would see Christmas Future as a time surrounded by an ever-growing family. I would welcome grandchildren into my heart, and I would face more change, as it is with every season. But I can’t predict such things.
What I do know with the certainty of faith is that Christmas will continue as long as life is long, until Jesus fulfills prophesy once again and returns to earth to take back what is rightfully His. When that day comes, He will not come to earth as an infant, but riding on a white horse with power and authority over every thing that lives and breathes.
In that day, when Jesus rules, there will truly be peace on earth. There will be no more evil or sickness or heartache or pain. As Amy Grant sings in her “Grownup Christmas Wish” song, “no more lives torn apart, that wars would never start, and time would heal all hearts”…
And yet, as my pastor said this past Sunday, time does not heal. Time helps. God heals. And if we let it, Christmas Future can be a time of healing, even before Jesus comes to make things right. Christmas Future, if it went the way I’d love to see it go, would be a time where lost faith was restored, broken relationships were healed, ruined lives were healed. Christmas Future would hold true Love in our hearts by faith, and we would all see Jesus as He truly is today. Not just as a baby in a manger in a small Jewish town two thousand years ago. But a King who reigns. A King who longs to change our hearts–who came the first time to become like us so that we could become like Him.
Christmas Future would be to know Him more. To love Him more, and by loving Jesus in turn loving our fellow human beings with the same love He’s given to us. It’s a daunting challenge, one that requires sacrifice and surrender. But it is a future that I long for. And one that is worth whatever it takes to reach it.
