DEVOTION FOR FRIDAY IN THE WEEK OF ADVENT I (12/3/10)

GOD’S WORD—Matthew 24:36
But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

MEDITATION
Of all the days in all the year that I’m familiar with,
There’s only one that’s really fun: December the Twenty Fifth!
Ask anyone called Robinson, or Brown, or Jones, or Smith
Their favourite day, and they will say: December the Twenty Fifth!
December the Twenty Fifth, me dears! December the Twenty Fifth!
The dearest day in all the year!
December the Twenty Fifth!
(The words of Fezziwig in the motion picture, “Scrooge”)

In today’s brief reading, Jesus says that no one (with the exception of God the Father) knows when He will return for the second time. We are about to celebrate His first arrival over two thousand years ago. The calendar schedules a day for that: December the twenty-fifth! (If you need more time, recall that there are twelve days of Christmas!)

The “date and hour” of His second coming, however, is anyone’s guess, and the question has been one of considerable speculation ever since His first coming. But such speculation, to borrow a line from a John Wayne movie, “doesn’t amount to a spit in a river.” What does amount to something is a faith in God that continues to grow and a life that seeks to give God glory – on December the Twenty Fifth and always!

PRAYER
Stir up your power, O Lord, and come; that by Your protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by your mighty deliverance; for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

VERSE
Lo! He comes with clouds descending, once for favored sinners slain;
Thousand thousand saints attending swell the triumph of His train:
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
God appears on earth to reign!