Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus (stanzas 1-2)
Come, Thou long-expected Jesus,
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us;
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.
Charles Wesley, 1744
As modern-day Christians we have the gift of hind-sight, knowing that Jesus was indeed the Messiah for whom generations of Jews waited. Their patience was timeless, a trait practically unheard of in these days. We don’t like to wait for anything, even programming the television recorder to skip commercial advertisements so that we can get on with the show! And yet, wait they did for generations, never ceasing to be vigilant for the coming Savior. And they waited with excitement!
The closest feeling I can imagine to that deepest desire and longing heart (verse one) is one from my childhood on Christmas Eve. Preparation time in the early 1960’s was not nearly the extended months we experience now, though at the time it felt like waiting went on forever. There were those families in our town who decorated their tree immediately after Thanksgiving, but our family waited to pick and cut the cedar the week before Christmas. It was probably because my parents would wait for one of the older boys to return from college to help, but it was also to keep from driving my mother crazy with the youngest ones of us asking to open a present early. Finally Christmas Eve day would arrive. To help make the time pass, we were allowed to open one present. Great thought and deliberation went into that decision. The hours of that day seemed to last extraordinarily long. Watching the clock was a frequent duty. As the excitement rose and we began to get ready for the evening service, so did the excitement shivers. There were so many things about which to feel excited: the smell of turkey dinner and applesauce cakes, the chill of December, all the family home from faraway places, the house beautifully decorated (or, at least, cleaned all over at the same time!) and the thrill of holding a lit candle while singing carols in our quaint little Victorian sanctuary. The special music, the ritual of spreading the light of Christ, the joy of the extended church family all under one roof and the thrill of knowing that the wait for Christmas Day was almost over was enough to make me shiver from head to toe. There was no problem getting me to bed on this night, even though I knew my bed would be freezing for hours to come. Those excitement shivers can be recalled even 45 plus years later. Now that was a deep-felt longing … not for the toys and gifts, but for the overall joy of everything perfect all at the same time.
O Holy God, while we remember Israel’s waiting and hoping and we give thanks for Christ’s birth, we also anticipate his second coming at the end of time. Help us be the brothers and sisters in Christ you want us to be as we lead more disciplined lives and repent in the confident expectation and hope of Christ’s coming again. Amen.
Doris Granum
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