One of my favorite aspects of Advent is that it is about more than Jesus’s birth. Advent is about anticipation. It recalls the ancient Israelites longing to see their Messiah come, the One who would free them from their oppressors. We reenact that anticipation as we count down the days to Christmas, and the arrival of the One hoped for.
Advent anticipates more than Jesus’s first coming; it also looks to his return. When we celebrate Jesus’s arrival on earth we are meant to remember that he has promised to come again. His first coming was humble and witnessed by a very few, but his second will be in power and glory and witnessed by the entire world.
I love Numbers 24:17, not just because of the imagery of the star and scepter, but because of how it begins: “I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near.” Those words, uttered not by an Israelite prophet but by an enemy, capture perfectly our own reality.
Through the Gospels and through the Holy Spirit within us, we can see and behold Jesus in ways those living before him could only imagine. Although we are able to experience Jesus in powerfully real ways, we still perceive a distance, a “not yet” aspect of our relationship with him.
Advent is the celebration of his first coming, because it fulfilled his promises to his people to set them free. It’s a chance to celebrate in advance because God is faithful and will come again just as he has promised.
He came and he will come again. None of us beheld the star that first Christmas, yet one day we will witness him coming on the clouds as he returns in power, our King forever.