The Fullness of Time
As December arrives, we become more acutely conscious of the passage of time. We begin to grapple with the fact that another year has almost passed and that we will soon retire calendar- year 2022 and will begin a new set of days on calendar-year 2023.
Our understanding of time is a matter of perspective, among other things. For example, when we were young, Christmas was a long time coming. But as we age, we find it hard to believe that Christmas is upon us so quickly. (It doesn’t help that our current consumer culture seems to capitalize on Christmas earlier and earlier.) In our youth, we foolishly perceive time as the unfortunate restraint of our selfish ambitions under the yoke of our parent’s authority, our teachers’ homework assignments, and societal norms.
It takes us a while to get our true bearing in this life. Only time itself can bring about the maturation of our human perspective. We need more than a few seasons to appreciate the patterns and rhythms of life on this planet and how we engage fully and fruitfully in it. In our youth, we have little incentive to look back. We’re always eager for the next adventure. Reflection is a learned response to the passage of time.
At some point we realize that something has profoundly changed. The internal clock is ticking louder and louder, and the days are racing by like the blur of an Amtrak train speeding down the tracks as you wait at a lonely crossing. Again, this is perspective. The speeding train becomes a metaphor of your life. As the train whizzes by, each car is a year of your life, and in each car you see a face in the window looking back at you from the past. This is memory and reflection at work, and you recall the time you wasted in your youth, wishing the days away.
Urgency follows reflection. This is the point in life in which we realize we have so much to do, and the time we have left to do everything that we are compelled to do is diminishing with each passing day. This is the point in life when Psalm 90:12 becomes a very personal prayer: “Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Gaining a heart of wisdom is, at a minimum, a degree of God’s perspective – an eternal perspective on life, time, and eternity. Our God is the Sovereign Lord and Ruler over all creation, time, and eternity. His perspective is from above – ours is from below. He sees the end from the beginning. Only in Christ do we as believers have access to this wisdom from above because, as Paul points out, “Christ is God’s ultimate miracle and wisdom all wrapped up in one” (The Message).
Christmas – the Incarnation of God the Son – is the celebration of the moment in time when the Son stepped out of the eternal realm and into the earthly realm of time and space. It was that definitive moment that God’s realm – his Eternal Kingdom – invaded our time and space with his presence, power, and peace. Christmas is a reminder to those of us who believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, that our salvation by grace through faith is a matter of God’s perfect plan and purpose in sending Jesus into the world, as well as his perfect sense of timing.
In Galatians 4:4, the Apostle Paul wrote, “But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman…” (KJV). This is not only the language of human pregnancy and birth, but also of divine purpose and timing. God had implanted the hope of a Messiah-Savior hundreds of years before in the hearts of his people. But just as God created a gestation period of nine months preceding human birth, he waited until the completion of gestation of generations before the exact right time for the Lord Jesus appeared in human flesh.
The birth of our Lord Jesus in Bethlehem was the fulfillment of God’s promise of a Savior. When we celebrate Christmas in this sense, we should pause to remember that every promise of God is “Yes” in Christ. Every promise of God to us today in the Gospel is a Divine promise that is pregnant and awaiting the fullness of time.
When God seems slow to keep a promise for which we believe, we should be like Abraham who had to wait 25 years for the son God promised him. As Hebrews 6:15 puts it, “And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised” (NIV). Remember, too, what Peter writes to the believers about the Lord’s second coming: “Don’t overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change” (II Peter 3:8-9 The Message).
It’s December, friends! Christmas is coming! The Lord is near! Joy to the world! The Kingdom is at hand! Rejoice! All in God’s time! Forever and ever! Amen.