How it's going

I wanted to do one of those picture pairs that you see everywhere, the how it started / how it's going combo.

How it started was easy to find. A manger scene. Baby Jesus in a manger, loved and welcomed by angels and shepherds. 

"Call him Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." That's how it all started.

But then. I was stumped at the how it's going part.

A cross, I thought; but no - He isn't still on the cross. That's how it went, but isn't how it's going.

So then, a tomb? An empty tomb, because He's alive? I mean, kind of - but the prophecy wasn't "call him Jesus, for he shall rise from the dead" (which is a pretty cool prophecy tbh).

And then I found a photo of a woman holding up her arms, with broken shackles dangling.

That's it, I thought - that's the After shot, that's how it's going. He has saved us from our sins.

And it's true, it's beautifully, gloriously true that He died for our sins, He rose in victory, He lives as our advocate.

But in this life, in this world

in the everyday slog, it isn't how it feels like it's going, right? In many ways we are still shackled by sins, and I don't mean that lightly or tritely. Shackled by addiction or anger, by fear or doubt. Shackled by terror, by harm endured at another's hand. Shackled by disease or poverty or circumstance. Shackled by history and current events.

I don't know a lot of people who feel wholly free.

In this world we will know trouble.

I don't have a picture of how it's going because it's not done going yet.

We dwell in the not yet. In between "call Him Jesus" and "he shall save his people from their sins."

Christmas calls Christians to affirm our long hope, our sure hope, our only hope: 

He will save us.

We wait. We wait through illness and loneliness. We wait through grief and suffering. We wait through Decembery darkness, waiting

For our salvation.

He will come.

Merry Christmas, friends. Xo.