There seems to be no better way to end a week focused on how to live in this time of already and not yet, than to read this passage from John. It sums up that while we did not have the gift of living when Jesus walked this earth, we do have the gift of the Counselor sent to guide us in Truth. It reminds us that though Jesus has returned to God in heaven, he will return to us again. It convicts us to live our lives attuned to the Spirit so that we can learn what we need to learn as we need to learn it.
I fully believe that Jesus knew how his disciples (and all of us today) would react to his disappearing for a time…especially because they did not know how long of a time it would be. Would he come back in their lifetime? Will he come back in our time? I think one of the greatest challenges we can overcome in Advent is to arrive at the point in which we no longer need that answer. The more we need that answer, the more we look back to find it. The more we look back, the more we miss what God is doing now and the word the Spirit speaks. The more we look back, the greater chance we have of missing opportunities to be lights in the darkness.
The more we look back the less we will understand what it means to say, Come Lord Jesus.
(Note: the above is original content written by this author in 2004. I suggest having a journal and Bible on-hand when you sit down with this devotional in order to complete the full aspects of it.)