Someone is Coming

“No one is coming.” - Mel Robbins

“I have come.” - Jesus

That first quote pops up on my social media every so often. The clip goes on to talk about how you are the only one responsible for your life, and no one is coming to change your life or save you from your own bad decisions. 

Which can be helpful sometimes, it’s true. It’s good to be reminded that I’m responsible for my own choices and shouldn’t just sit around waiting for someone else to fix my problems. 

But there’s only so much I can do for myself. I can build good habits, but I can’t always stick to them. I can fight sin, but I can never change my own heart. I can read my Bible every day, but I can’t live up to it on my own.

Humans are capable of a lot, and self-help works, to a point. 

But sometimes you’re just stuck. Sometimes you really can’t do it. You’re burned out and poured out and out of options. 

And that’s when Jesus shows up. 

Self-help says you are always the way out, no matter how empty you feel. 

Jesus says he is the way out. He is coming to rescue you. 

It hurts our pride a bit. No one wants to be the damsel in distress. No one wants to be the lost sheep. No one really wants to have to be rescued, and yet that’s the only way to accept the gospel. 

“But wait. Doesn’t Jesus also say ‘come to me?’”

Yes, but even then he’s still doing the rescuing. 

My Bible study group had a lesson a few weeks ago on the prodigal son, and how important it is that the father came running out to meet him. Because the cultural norm for a situation like that would be for the whole village to treat him as an outcast - unless his father was able to get to him first. 

And the son wasn’t even coming back to be a son again. His plan was to come back as a servant, earning just what he needed to survive. But his father comes running out to interrupt his self-saving plan and shower him with grace and acceptance. 

Notably, this story comes right on the heels of the parables of the lost sheep and lost coin, two lost things that had no ability to be found on their own. 

So apparently the story of the prodigal son is not so much about how we can always come back to God, but about how God comes running to meet us, interrupting all our plans to earn his favor with a flood of undeserved grace. 

I saw a reel recently where a speaker went up and down a ladder, talking about all the good things religious people do to try to climb up the ladder to get to God, and all the failures that bring us back down a couple of rungs, and how God just comes down the ladder to get to us.

And that, of course, is what we’re celebrating this week: the God who comes for us, who meets us in our mess, who rescues us, who is always with us. The baby in the manger is the One who is fully present in your life today and will return one day to make all things new. 

“No one is coming” can be motivating in really specific situations, but if it was really true we’d all be in big trouble. So this Christmas, let’s rejoice in the hope of knowing the One who has come for us, and always will.