"For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men..." Titus 2:11
“In the fullness of time…” Galatians 4:4
Our friend, Jenny, is pregnant. Very pregnant. She is due in a matter of weeks but when you ask the exact date she draws a breath and says, “I am ready now.” She is walking the path of “the fullness of time” and time is not yet complete.
I’ve never met a pregnant woman that wanted to remain pregnant. No woman ever says, “Why would I want to deliver this baby when I can remain pregnant for a while longer?” The fullness of time cannot come soon enough for the birth that brings deliverance.
Fullness means that there is nothing left to do but go to the next step. It is the end of a process, the final step, the completion of a thoughtful and deliberate march that is “made full” by careful achievement. But there is another characteristic that shapes the fullness of time and it is this,
No one knows all that will take place,
Including the person who patiently waits.
The mysteries that are worked in the fullness of time are knit in secret and shared with no one. David said, “I was made in secret,” and no matter how much we think we know, certain matters are held tight between the pages of His Book. And so it is with the child of God. Knit in secret and skillfully wrought is the “how” of God. The womb of waiting is the workshop of real life.
Into that secret place God poured the seed of deliverance for his lost children. Forced from His presence, the banished citizens of Eden had no hope left in the life they had known. The last words were curses, the final memory a blazing sword that swept the landscape of the Garden with fiery separation. Yet from this scene of disaster the children took in their heart of hearts a trust that the very One who banished them was also the One who sought them.
Secretly hidden from all was the tiny Hope that would be “made full” after man had exhausted himself of deliverance on his own terms. For 4,500 years the children of Adam and Eve waited… for what they did not know.
But then…
- An angel and a maid.
- A young man and a commissioning.
- An eighty mile trek on the back of a donkey.
- A wicked king who sought to kill.
- Shepherds, an innkeeper, a dark night of the soul when all seemed lost.
And the Fullness of Time came. He who had walked creation’s path and scattered the stars in the sky was reduced to a quiet miracle that caused the angels to sing.
Jesus was born in the night far from the gaze of the crowd that would seek Him and kill Him. He was born into a culture already despised, born into the humblest of circumstances. No room in the inn, no bed to lay his head, all of this so those who sought him could find him.
Paul wrote,
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son;and if a son, then a heir through God.
The ancients named this season Advent to point people to the birth of the Messiah, yet His birth, though a worthy celebration, is in the past. The true Advent of the church is to prepare for His return. So remember, won’t you? Remember that when the fullness of time comes again, He will come as a reigning King, not a Babe in a manger. Remember that He did not leave us with a curse but a promise; not with a fiery sword but an empty tomb. And though we celebrate His birth, the real celebration is that it is one day less until His return.
God never forgets. He always keeps His promises. And when the fullness of time comes again, it will dawn an eternally new day.
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