Living between the Advents

Advent means: the coming or arrival, especially of something extremely important.

This season has a little different spin on it to me than ever. Our church is talking about what it means to be celebrating the advent season of Christ's birth while we also are living in our own waiting time for Christ to return again. And how when we just celebrate the birth of Christ and forget the other advent we are in, we begin to become products of our environment; but when we only look to the return of Christ and fixate on being with Him in heaven, we lose sight of the beautiful gift of today and the way Christ calls us to be His image bearers, here now. 

So I'm not sure that this all makes sense or ties together but I have been thinking about how I am waiting for this new time in my life, to me a mom and waiting for this little boy to come into our lives. Romans 8:22 talks about how "the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth....we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved, But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they have already have? If we hope for what we do not have we wait for it patiently." 

I just wonder how I am doing at hoping for the return of Christ. Do I really believe that he is coming back? I  love the tangible example of creation groaning as in the pains of childbirth. The fact that we are going to go through hard painful things as we wait just like a mother in labor pains through childbirth for the hope of her sweet baby coming.  I think of the ways that even in this pregnancy I can become so fixated on the the future life ahead that I loose sight of the gift of the PROCESS. And how if I live as if the baby isn't coming I would probably be doing harm to the baby and myself by neglecting the things that are important for the his health as well as being totally unprepared and caught off guard. 

As we get farther into our labor class we are taking, one of the theories of this class is that while in labor if we tense into our contractions they are actually LESS PRODUCTIVE. They teach that we have to learn to relax into contractions to allow them to do their work. They often say we have to get ourselves out of the way so that the baby can come.  Every time I hear that now I think WOW how spiritually significant that is in our lives. We often want to wish the bad things and painful things away in our lives and we tense, avoid,  and run. How can we learn to except and embrace the painful "contractions" of life and allow them to do their work in us as we wait on the Lord?

How are we at living between the advents? Believing Christ for his return as well as living today as His image bearers.