December 18
Cindy Cutlip, PSC Elder
This Advent season, more than ever, we are a waiting and longing people. We wait for test results and unemployment checks. We long for a time when we can all gather together freely and safely once again. We hope for a cure to heal our troubled world. This time of waiting and longing can lure us towards feelings of fear, loneliness, shame and grief as our eyes take in all that is broken and unjust. The vision in Revelation 21 can seem too lovely to be true and too distant to fully comprehend.
In Psalm 63, King David desperately cries out to the Lord from a desert place. His words to God are intimate and vulnerable as he thirsts for and clings to God. David reminisces about who God was to him in better times, yet he does not choose to stay focused on the glory days of the past. David abruptly turns to praise God at the time of his distress. David’s posture of worship did not come from being delivered from his calamity–it came in the midst of it.
Yes, we are a waiting and longing people. We desire healing and peace for our much troubled world. But even more so, we are a praising people–radiant with joy because we know our God holds the future and will indeed someday make all things new. We believe he has prepared a new city for us (a human community) where we will dwell with him one day. He will wipe away every tear. There will be no more death or mourning, crying or pain. These words are trustworthy and true. Re-read the words of Psalm 63 aloud to the Lord and make them the cry of your heart.