Discover Advent’s Main Event

Read

And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. (Isa. 40:5)

Reflect

To say I’m bossy about Christmas is an understatement.

As a kid, I insisted my sisters and I sleep in the same bedroom on Christmas Eve so we could all enter the living room together in the morning and share the first sight of presents piled under the tree. I made sure they both had a water bottle and a book to read if they woke up early, so they wouldn’t need to venture out and ruin the wonder. (As an adult, I’ve tried to convince them to ditch their husbands for a night so we can keep the tradition going. No luck so far.)

Glory abounds at Christmas—in that sight of presents under the tree, in spectacular light displays, in the rousing harmonies of a congregation singing carols by candlelight. If we’re not careful, we become captivated by the wonder of all the secondary glories of Christmas and miss the main event.

If we’re not careful, we become captivated by the wonder of all the secondary glories of Christmas and miss the main event.

Isaiah knew what it meant to behold true glory. He was given a vision of God on his throne, and it almost killed him: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isa. 6:5).

Yet Isaiah wasn’t the only one who’d get to see the Lord. Through the prophet’s words, God comforted his people exiled in Babylon with an astonishing promise: “The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together” (40:5).

At Christmastime, we celebrate the coming of this glory. Jesus took on humanity, and he entered our world in a grubby stable. Glory arrived. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

Most who saw Jesus during his lifetime missed his glory. But now in the Bible, we see it—the glory of his miracles; his teaching; his sinlessness; his death, resurrection, and ascension. Do you see it? Or are your eyes fixed on something else this Christmas?

Amid the festive spectacles, are you too distracted to look on and bask in your Savior’s glory? Do your eyes flit so quickly between your calendar, your to-do list, and your messy house that you don’t even notice Christ?

Through Scripture, we behold Jesus now. As we look, the Spirit transforms us more and more into Jesus’s image so we share his glory (2 Cor. 3:18). Yet this isn’t enough. Charles Spurgeon wrote, “How partially we see Christ here. The best believer only gets half a glimpse of Christ.”

Do your eyes flit so quickly between your calendar, your to-do list, and your messy house that you don’t even notice Christ?

These partial glimpses make us long for Christ’s return, when we’ll finally see him face to face. Only then will Isaiah’s prophecy be fulfilled as God keeps his promise: “The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

On that day, we’ll delight together at the greatest spectacle any of us has ever seen. In anticipation of that glory, we can rejoice in what Scripture reveals of Jesus today. Let’s look and look until we see.

Respond

Who or what has most of your attention this Christmas? What habits or practices can you start in the coming weeks to fix your eyes on Christ’s glory? How might you stir your longing for his return amid the season’s busyness?