Dear one,
Yesterday, as I sought to prepare for a Skype conversation, as I thought of the pastor with whom I was to meet, I was reminded of timing: frequently he and I have raised those heartfelt questions: How long, O’ Lord? Why the delay? What is it that we fail to see or understand?
As I prepared for our conversation, I was reminded of Galatians 4:4-7, where Paul underscored the foundation of our baptism in Christ:
“[When] the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba!Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir”.
That is, our baptism in Christ means that our fundamental identity is neither ethnic, socio-economic, nor sexual: we are no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, and/or male and female, but rather we are one in Christ (Galatians 3:28). However, this oneness is based upon what God the Father has done: in the fullness of time He sent His Son.[1]
For us this “fullness of time” typically means Advent and Christmas, our looking back to what God did in Bethlehem through a homeless, young couple. But from a Jewish perspective prior to that moment, that fullness meant centuries of waiting—five, six, ten centuries? In this regard the words of Isaiah quickly surface:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
The fullness of time, then, is the Father’s choosing; it is His determination as to when the moment is most fitting or propitious—perhaps at great variance to our own determinations. Thus, while we wait with some uncertainty for this or that moment, change, or completion, Advent/Christmas should encourage us, quelling our fears and uncertainties: we are His adopted children; we are heirs with Christ; we have been given His Spirit; and we can cry to Him as Abba-Father—Daddy.
Timing: my returns to Romania and Malawi are not set; it is not yet the time to book tickets—but my identity as His child is secure, because of the fullness of time.
Faithfully,
Stan
[1]By the way, “Christmas” means: “Christ sent.”