Can you think of any more perfect words during this Advent season than, “Look, I am coming soon!”? The Alpha and Omega spoke these words through John a little more than 2,000 years ago. While the 21st century US may seem worlds apart from 1st century Patmos, we are immediately linked to John as a people who yearn for the coming (or return) of our Savior. As he wrote Revelation, John was alone and desolate on an island and may have known he was abandoned there to die. But, as he looked to the Lord, he received these words of hope to be sent to that early church. It was a church that, unlike our congregations, had to often meet in secret without the freedom to openly profess a faith in Jesus Christ. Despite this difference, we are the same Church. We are of the same spiritual DNA as those beautiful believers who spread the Gospel wherever they went. The hope in a Savior who came to us in the form of a baby two millennia ago and will return to redeem a fallen world is the same hope. Creation was groaning for His presence in that first century. Although He only remained with us in the flesh for a little over thirty years, His Spirit is still with us this instant. We yearn and long for His glorious return, and to that, he says -
“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you[a] this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”
May that be our HOPE for eternity. May we be a people who wash our robes and have a “right to the tree of life.”
Written by Nehemias Iglesias
