By Pastor Al Pino,
Palm Vista Community Church
There is a longing deep inside every man and woman to recapture the glory that seems to escape us in this sad and fallen world of sickness, corruption, betrayal, addiction, harsh bosses and broken relationships.
Perhaps like no other holiday Christmas captures this longing for glory.
This is the time of year when we express our longing for that glory in parties and family gatherings where presents are given and friends and families come together to eat and drink; enjoying warm feelings and fond memories.
It is a time of year when we try to be kind to one another, when warring nations call Christmas truces and we wish for a moment of good will and peace to all. We express this longing in the songs we sing, the good feelings we enjoy if only for a day or two and the holiday movies we watch with heart-warming endings like “It’s A Wonderful Life.” We flock to Disney with its marvelous Christmas lights and fairy tale endings.
These all express our longing for glory and they are to be sure a small foretaste of the true, eternal glory that arrived with Christ’s first advent and will be consummated for all eternity at his second advent.
But true eternal glory is only possible in Christ Jesus. Only Christ fulfills our longing for glory because only Christ can restore the glory we lost.
We lost the glory of God in the Garden of Eden. That’s right, we lost the glory of God in paradise. The bible teaches us that God intended us for glory and that glory was experienced by Adam and Eve in the garden where they ruled over God’s creation under God’s kind and good rule.
But Adam and Eve decided to go their own way, they rebelled against God and lost the glory of God and received the just punishment for their rebellion, death. And ever since then, we have been laboring under the curse of death, longing for the glory and life of God.
Here is the good news; God promised Adam and Eve that He would one day restore that glory through a Savior who would crush the head of evil. And that Savior is none other than Jesus Christ whose advent or coming we celebrate this Christmas season.
Friend, may God reveal to you the true meaning and significance of Jesus’ first advent in gaining back the glory we lost and long for by suffering and dying on the cross for the sins of His people, rising from the dead for the forgiveness of those sins and ascending into heaven promising to share His glory with His people at His second advent.
We invite you to come hear more about this glory that we lost and long for at our Christmas service on Friday night December 23, 7:30 p.m. at the Miami Lakes Middle School Auditorium.