The season of Advent celebrates two “advents.” That is to say, in Advent we don’t do one thing, but two things. First, we remember how the Messiah was born among us. After centuries of waiting—long centuries full of the boredom and the passion of human history—the Savior came in fulfillment of all the promises in the Old Testament. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means God with us” (Matt. 1:23). But in Advent we also remember that Jesus—who was crucified, resurrected, and ascended to the right hand of the Father—has promised to return. Christ’s first coming inaugurated the reign of God, but the fulness of God’s kingdom is yet to come. And just as there was a very long wait for the first Advent, we’re in the midst of the very long wait for the second Advent.

But even as we wait, Advent shows us that human history is not absurd. History is not just the story of power, possession, struggle, and conflict. The age to come has already invaded “this present evil age” (Gal. 1:4). In Jesus, God has come to reclaim for himself the territory now occupied by the Enemy. God himself has acted in history and has control of the big story which we inhabit. Though there are many battles yet to be fought, Jesus is going to come again and he’s going to return to judge the living and the dead. He is going to renew all things and consummate the everlasting kingdom in which every tear shall be wiped away and all is as it was meant to be.

For now, the life of the church is poised in the Time Between, but with an orientation toward the promised future of God that is full of hope. So the season is to be joyful. The people of God celebrate the love, faithfulness, power, and beauty of God in Jesus Christ. Yet Advent is also bittersweet—like being away from your beloved. We’re not sure where we are in the waiting. Is the return soon? We are told to always live expectantly. The second coming is going to happen, just as surely and powerfully as the first. And yet we do ask, “How long, O Lord? Isn’t now a good time for you to return to set all things straight and deliver all things?”