these are the days: december

December always feels to me like an airplane coming in for a landing—only instead of slowing down and preparing safely for the touchdown onto the runway, the plane just keeps accelerating as it drops. The tarmac is getting closer and closer at an alarming rate and everyone on board has a glint of panic in their eyes until finally, at the last possible second, the landing gear come down and the plane all but crash-lands, careening wildly into the start of another new year.

Anyone else? Or is this just me?

On top of the normal December rush, we are closing out another decade. It seems quite impossible that we stand on the cusp of the year 2020. I still remember coloring my printer-paper-taped-together “2000” sign with red and yellow markers while the world held its breath for the new millennium. How is it that one-fifth of that “new” millennium is already behind us?

Sorry, I don’t mean to freak anyone out. But I do wonder—can you sense the ongoing crescendo of time, as I do? It always seems to be getting louder and faster to me, like some terrifying amusement park ride with a whirlpool effect: the longer we spin, the faster we go and the harder it is to slow down.

I’ll be honest that it scares me a little. But there is a delight of anticipation, too. Just as I imagine Israel was waiting with both uncertainty and excitement for the Messiah to come, the Church waits in the discomfort of impatience for Him to come again.

For two thousand years the expectation has been building, the music has been rising, the years have been turning. Every day His return draws nearer. He came once as the Bright Morning Star, the low-hanging planet on the horizon that is first to predict the dawn; next time, He comes as the Sun itself, whose Kingdom will illumine even the ends of the earth.

Suggested Thinking

Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.

And he said to me, “These words are faithful and true”; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His bond-servants the things which must soon take place.

“And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.”

Revelation 22:1-7