Until the day dawns
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
And before you were born I consecrated you. Jeremiah 1:5
2 Peter 1:16—21
When I take my Bible and open it, the major part is preparation for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He does not come without preparation. All that I read before Jesus leads to him, not just from those who are called prophets, but from what is called law, from among the Psalms and the writings. Every part of it is preparing the way for the one who came as the lamp shining in the dark place. So my New Testament sings with a joyful theme, these are the days![1] This is the hour! And the New Testament writers combed their inherited scriptures and found Christ promised.[2] They panned for gold in the streams of scripture. Yet I don’t live backwards. I live forwards. Put this message together with Jesus’ own words: he himself is now his own promise.[3] He is the one I am gladly going forward to meet.
Prayer
Dear Lord, I live my life in anticipation. When I finish this day I expect tomorrow to open as a new day. Those things that have satisfied me lose their lustre if I cannot return to them and find something new in them, even a relived experience. So in you: I have all I need, yet there is more. There is more because you promise it. You promise yourself in the kingdom where all my present communion with you will be foretaste and appetiser and the very beginning.
[1] Acts 2:16—17
[2] Matthew 1:22—23 and often
[3] Matthew 26:29