We are under a winter storm watch. It was 65 degrees yesterday, but the temperature is expected to drop at least forty degrees today as the frontal system moves in bringing freezing rain, sleet and snow.
Snow.
There are few things that get our household as giddy as the possibility – no matter how slight – of a snow day. What a sweet unexpected luxury of going back to bed, of pajamas, not to mention, cinnamon rolls. We will light the snow candle and I will spend the afternoon comparing weather reports, latching on to the most dire of the lot, as one to three inches, becomes three to five, becomes five to eight.
The buzz generated by a little snow in the forecast is nothing compared to the anticipation in the hearts of God’s people some two thousand years ago. They knew the words Malachi had spoken 400 years earlier. “‘But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves. You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this,’ says the Lord of hosts.” (Malachi 4:2-3) God said those words. He said He would send Elijah the prophet. Then for four hundred years, He said nothing.
Nothing.
The United States hasn’t even been a country for 400 years. We can’t comprehend not hearing from God for 400 years. But then He broke the silence. When Gabriel recited the words of Malachi back to Zacharias, he knew exactly what the messenger meant. It was time. The anticipation was giving way to reality.
Two thousand years ago, Jesus said, “Behold I am coming quickly.” There will come a day when the anticipation once again gives way to reality, and to fulfillment. The amazing promises God kept at the birth of Christ are just a glimpse. In fact, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” (2 Corinthians 2:9) The best is still to come.
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