(A)The...
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(A)
The text continues the theme of joy that begins in the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah. This Advent theme of joy is referred to as the Gaudete theme. It is the joy of anticipation.
Carolyn Self tells how she and her husband Bill and son Bryan took advantage of a school holiday and went to a secluded spot in the North Georgia mountains. It started out as a beautiful weekend. Bill returned to Atlanta on Saturday night to preach in his church on Sunday. He would return on Sunday evening.
On Sunday afternoon, it began to rain. It poured -- seven inches in five hours. A tornado hit a nearby town. Thunder and lightning crackled all around Carolyn and Bryan. They had no car. They were alone. They were stranded! It was frightening.
On Sunday evening, about midnight, Carolyn and Bryan saw Bill's car lights starting up the mountain road toward them. They watched through the flashes of lightning. The road had become a river. Suddenly the front car lights went down and under water and then the tail lights went out.
Carolyn's heart stopped beating. Had Bill drowned?
Finally, she saw the figure of a man moving around. She saw the beam of his flashlight moving through the storm. "My heart nearly burst with joy," she said, "to hear Bill's voice calling to me."
We are stranded in the storms of life, but "our hearts nearly burst with joy" as we watch "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Already we hear his voice calling to us, and "he who calls us is faithful."
-- Randolph
The text continues the theme of joy that begins in the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah. This Advent theme of joy is referred to as the Gaudete theme. It is the joy of anticipation.
Carolyn Self tells how she and her husband Bill and son Bryan took advantage of a school holiday and went to a secluded spot in the North Georgia mountains. It started out as a beautiful weekend. Bill returned to Atlanta on Saturday night to preach in his church on Sunday. He would return on Sunday evening.
On Sunday afternoon, it began to rain. It poured -- seven inches in five hours. A tornado hit a nearby town. Thunder and lightning crackled all around Carolyn and Bryan. They had no car. They were alone. They were stranded! It was frightening.
On Sunday evening, about midnight, Carolyn and Bryan saw Bill's car lights starting up the mountain road toward them. They watched through the flashes of lightning. The road had become a river. Suddenly the front car lights went down and under water and then the tail lights went out.
Carolyn's heart stopped beating. Had Bill drowned?
Finally, she saw the figure of a man moving around. She saw the beam of his flashlight moving through the storm. "My heart nearly burst with joy," she said, "to hear Bill's voice calling to me."
We are stranded in the storms of life, but "our hearts nearly burst with joy" as we watch "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Already we hear his voice calling to us, and "he who calls us is faithful."
-- Randolph
