On September 5th my wife and I celebrated the birth of our first child. I was overjoyed and relieved when I performed my first act as a father and counted the child’s fingers and toes. I marveled at God’s grace and mercy when the doctor declared we were the parents of a perfectly health little boy.

Three short weeks later I reflected on the doctor’s words as my wife and I drove our  once declared perfectly healthy little boy from Fergus Falls to Fargo for emergency surgery. As we sat in the waiting room I remember being sure of two things. The first was that we live in a fallen world,  a lions’ den, and the second was that I would trade places with my son if I could.

As my mind wandered it eventually landed in Scripture. I thought about our Father in Heaven and how he entered this fallen world to trade places with us, and I thought about his promise to one day come again.

Our child’s surgery was a success, and after a few long days in the hospital we returned home with a small scar on our once perfectly healthy little boy’s stomach to remind us that our hope is not in this world but the one to come.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 17:26-37
Jesus said: “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

“It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

“It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.”

“Where, Lord?” they asked. “He replied, Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.”

In the lions’ den it is not uncommon for us to lose sight of our Lord’s promise to return. Our world is poisoned by sin and, outside of God’s Word, sin is all we know. We easily get caught up in our own desires and our own will, and we forget there was once a day when all things were in harmony with God’s will. The Bible tells us that God saw all that he had made and it was very good.

In this world we experience trials and tribulations. We see loved ones grow old, friends get sick, and we struggle with what it means to love our enemies.

As Christians, in the midst of our struggles, we look to the Lamb. The one who came and removed the sting of death by paying for our transgressions. We look to the Lamb and remember that he has promised to return as a Lion. On that day the dead will rise to join the living and those in Christ will live in his presence for eternity.

As we enter this season of Advent we remember the words of the Apostle Paul, “The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed” (Romans 13:11), and we look with hope to the day that Christ will return. A day that will be better than very good. It will be perfect.

Troy Tysdal is Church Resource Coordinator for the CLB and serves as associate pastor at
Stavanger Lutheran Church in Fergus Falls, MN.

By Troy Tysdal

Troy Tysdal is Church Resource Coordinator for the Church of the Lutheran Brethren and serves as associate pastor at Stavanger Lutheran Church in Fergus Falls, MN.