Luke 6:20–26 (ESV): The Beatitudes
20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
Jesus Pronounces Woes
24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
25 “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.
“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
26 “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
Luke 6:20–26 (ESV): The Beatitudes
Abba,
Could it be that we do not delight more in Advent of waiting, in the arrival of the Messiah in a manger…..because we are too sated and full on other pleasures? Could it be that we do not look forward to, long for the coming of the long awaited one….because we are too filled up with the superficial pleasures of this life?
The more full our hands are, the less room for embracing more.
The more full our hands are, the less room for laying hold of what truly matters, what is truly precious.
The more full our hands, the less we are even looking for something else…
The more full our hands, the less we are waiting, looking forward to another because we are not even restless looking for it.
It is when we live with a sense of restlessness, as Bonhoeffer writes, AND also with a reverence for You, Abba, that we learn to truly wait. It is here in this intersection that we look up, that we know our lack, and we know to whom we look to satisfy that lack. We then know, it is not up to us when we will be filled up, but because of our reverence for You, we are drawn to patient waiting, in hope.
I am struck, Abba, by Bonhoeffer’s observation that not everyone can wait…but only those who know their restlessness, who recognize their inability to still that restlessness, and whose reverence for You compels them to look up. This is most profoundly seen in our lives when we come with empty hands. When what we are clinging to for satisfaction is suddenly stripped away. THIS, this is the curse of abundance. We turn the abundance into our idol, our satisfaction and our restlessness for the true delight of our souls is satiated; at least for a time.
Waiting is heaven’s way of drawing delight, passion, intimacy out of us and teaching us to direct it to You.
In the waiting, we inevitably find that nothing outside of Your immense glory can possibly satisfy. Not truly. Not richly. Not deeply. Oh, on the surface, for a moments in time, maybe. But we quickly find, in the waiting, that the only true source of satiation for the restlessness we feel in this life is to LOOK UP and look to You for the complete satisfaction of our souls.
The Advent of the Son, You Jesus, ensures the hope we have that we will not be turned away disappointed. You came near, to make Your home with us, that You might quell the aching passion of our souls with Yourself.
Oh, Abba, that we would empty ourselves of our abundance, that we would cease “filling ourselves up” with other trinkets of desire in our quest to satisfy the restlessness of our souls but instead would content ourselves with that restlessness and look up with Hope and wait patiently for the final Advent that will eradicate any longing through final and full satiation of Your person.
May this Advent season lead us there.
“I used to be very fond of thinking up and buying presents, but now that we have nothing to give, the gift God gave us in the birth of Christ will seem all the more glorious; the emptier our hands, the better we understand what Luther meant by his dying words: ‘We’re beggars; it’s true.’ The poorer our quarters, the more clearly we perceive that our hearts should be Christ’s home on earth.”
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, and Jana Riess. God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas. Westminster John Knox Press, 2012.
A Singular Passion 