So the full message of Advent could not be more
unlike the watered down message of our popular culture regarding the Christmas
season, because the Advent of Christ, is not about, gross materialism or
superficial sentimentality. Advent
celebrates three separate occasions, when the Lord in His great goodness breaks
into our human reality. The first of
these manifestations was his birth in Bethlehem when Jesus came in poverty and
meekness and for our sake was born as a child, in all the weakness of our human
flesh. His second birth can take place
at any moment of our own choosing, when Christ may be born in our hearts. Perhaps right now we may come to greater
faith in Him, and more than ever before accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. And His third Birth will be at the end of
time, when the Lord will come again, not in poverty and weakness, but in great
power and majesty, to judge the living and the dead. We may ignore the First Coming. We may chose to resist a Second Coming into
our hearts and lives, but all the universe and each one of us, must submit to
His Final Coming when He appears again in glory.