Every year, “some people” begin the countdown to Christmas on Dec. 26! The tree isn’t even down before the clock resets and the anticipation begins again. If you are, or are not, one of the “some people,” we can agree, there’s something about looking forward to a special day that stirs hope and keeps us moving through the exciting, ordinary and even difficult days.

Long before we counted shopping days or lit Advent candles, God set a countdown into motion. Seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus, the prophet Micah wrote that the Messiah would come from an unlikely place: “But you, O Bethlehem … from you will come a ruler whose origins are from ancient times.”

It was a promise so specific that only one person could fulfill. And Jesus did. Born in Bethlehem. A ruler who shepherds His people. A Savior whose existence reaches back into eternity.

For centuries, God’s people watched and waited. When the moment came — at just the right time — God kept His word perfectly.

Today, we live in another countdown. Not toward His first coming, but toward His return. Jesus will come again, not as a baby in Bethlehem, but as the rightful King who brings justice, peace and restoration, with the promise of Heaven!

We don’t know the day or hour, but we do know this: We are one day closer.

As you count down to Christmas this year, let it remind you of the greater countdown still underway. The same God who kept His promise in Bethlehem will keep His promise again. We are one day closer, and URLoved!

Kem Haggard, pastor
Harbor Light Church