by Amanda Ward
This Advent, we have been reflecting together on what it looks like to wait for what we already have. Dave has reminded us that when we come to the communion table, we remember Christ’s first coming in Bethlehem, we anticipate his future coming at the end of the ages, and we expect his present coming into our hearts. Waiting for what we already have changes our relationship with time. Past, present, and future overlap in mysterious ways. Revelation 12 tells a story that sits in this same space of overlapping time.
And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it.
Like a diamond, if you hold this story up to the light and spin it around, its many facets will sparkle. We remember Eve, the mother of humanity whose unborn child was prophesied to be at enmity with the serpent (Genesis 3:15). We remember the faithful of Israel waiting for the sign of Immanuel, a child born of a virgin, because they themselves had failed to give birth to salvation (Isaiah 7:14, 26:18). We remember the yes of Mary who delivered the Messiah into the line of David (Luke 2:1-20). The pregnant promises of God encase this story like an onion, and in the next scene, we get a glimpse of our future reality.
She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.
Indeed, we wait for what we already have: the one who is to rule all the nations. This Child has been born to us already! He has already been caught up to God out of the womb and the tomb and reigns supreme from his heavenly throne room. And yet we wait. We wait in the wilderness, kept by God until the time set for the final Advent.
As I spin this diamond around, I cannot pretend to understand its many facets. Its many surfaces intersect and refract and magnify the light into something beautiful and strange. Like John off in the wings of this 14th century depiction of the Woman and the Dragon that has been our companion through Advent, we look on this scene and wonder how we can stand in this convergence of time, past, present, and future. With Christ behind us, Christ in us, and Christ before us, let us march on through the wilderness towards Christmas Day.
Amanda just finished her first semester of a Masters of Divinity at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. She is looking forward to road-tripping to NC to visit family for the holidays with her husband Ryan, a good audiobook (have any recs?), and a tote full of Trader Joe's snacks.