4D3N Advent Residential Retreat: “No Longer Longing: O Come Emmanuel, O Come Lord Jesus”

“Soon it will be Christmas Day,” so goes one popular Christmas song. For Christians, a richer term to express the birth of Christ is “Advent.” It simply means “coming,” the coming of God into our world. With the Advent, we are no longer longing like Simeon who waited his whole life for the “consolation of Israel” (Luke 2:25).

But Advent does not just commemorate the birth of Christ, His first coming. It also anticipates the second Advent, His second coming. And we are reminded indeed to be like Simeon, and also the martyred believers who (in John’s vision of the future), “cried out in a loud voice “How long, Sovereign Lord … until you judge…?” (Rev 6:10)

Advent begins the Christian Year, which is based on the life of Christ. Thus, every new year, we start afresh to remember Christ’s birth and “follow” him from cradle to cross, from the grave to the sky. This is however, no boring re-run. The life of Christ, now the Living One (Rev 1:18) revitalizes us, as month after month, we are immersed in the spiritual significance of Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Resurrection, Ascension and Pentecost.

~ Extracts from John Chong Ser Choon’s Advent Reflection