by Rev Douglas Brauner

Anticipating Jesus’ return.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

I visit my garden everyday. Everyday I’m disappointed.

These Roma tomato plants have been growing like crazy. The fruit is so heavy that the branches need support, but none of the tomatoes have ripened. Even when I dig through the foliage hoping to find a least one ripening tomato, I find none. Ugh! Will they ever ripen? Will I have to pick the unripened fruit, before the first frost, place them in a grocery bag, and pray that they ripen? Will I have to wait that long?

Yet, as the old cliché goes, hope springs eternal…especially in my garden.

“For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
Romans 8:24-25 English Standard Version

So much of our relationship with Christ is based on waiting. We’re waiting for him to return in glory. Having won the victory over sin, death, and the devil, he promised that he would return. He promised that we would experience the joy of being released from bondage to decay. We wait, and as we wait we hold on to the promise. This promise gives us hope for what we can not see.

It’s a little easier for me to have hope in my tomatoes ripening. I can see, touch, and smell my tomatoes even if I can’t take a bite of a ripened fruit. In my relationship with Christ, all I have are his words of promise, yet we can trust his words.

So, we wait. Everyday we wait, and in our waiting we anticipate that day when we will taste the feast that has no end.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado