“Do you long for my Second Coming? Do you yearn in your heart for my return?”
By: Adriana Gonzalez
Not long ago, the Lord challenged me with a question: Do you long for my Second Coming? Do you yearn in your heart for my return? I realized (embarrassingly late in life) that the season of Advent not only focuses on anticipating the celebration of Jesus’ Incarnation on earth, in the little town of Bethlehem, but it also very much focuses on His Second Coming. I also realized that in my adult life, to varying degrees and only by the grace of God, I have longed for Christ in one way or another - through an encounter with Him by the power of the Holy Spirit, in the Eucharist, in Holy Scripture, in the prophetic word, in meditative prayer…. All very right and important. Yet, I never set my heart on His coming “with the clouds” when “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will mourn on account of him” (Rev 1:7).
And now the Lord is asking me (and I invite you to consider the same question), “Do you long for me to come on that “great and magnificent day” (Acts 2:20) when “the first heaven and the first earth has passed away, and the sea is no more” (Rev 21:1)? In other words, do we long for our Beloved Bridegroom so much that we are willing to give all for Him? We should ask ourselves, “Does my heart yearn for Him so much that I desire Him more than my life as I know it on earth with all my relationships, my plans, and my dreams?” How much do I long for the fullness of Christ Jesus when He comes on that day and disrupts life as we know it to “make all things new” (Rev 21:5)? On that day God will “wipe away every tear, and death shall be no more, and there will be no more mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things will have passed away” (Rev 21:4).
The Lord is inviting us, His people, to long for Him to come again as our Bridegroom for the marriage supper of the Lamb. He is inviting us to prepare ourselves as the Bride who makes herself ready by the power of the Holy Spirit (see Rev 19:7). In this Christmas season, as we celebrate Jesus’s lowly advent on earth as a babe in a manger, let us also ask the Holy Spirit to fill us with longing for Christ’s Second Coming!
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price…. He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! (Rev 22:17, 20)
Reflection Question:
“Do you long for my Second Coming? Do you yearn in your heart for my return?”
“Does my heart yearn for Him so much that I desire Him more than my life as I know it on earth with all my relationships, my plans, and my dreams?”
Merry Christmas!
Flourish Your Faith Ministries
