Amotti, Angels and the Heart of the Advent Season
Recently, more than 11,000 athletes packed the Expo for Hyrox Singapore: pushing sleds, throwing balls, and essentially reenacting the everyday labors of ancient farmers. The atmosphere was electric, in part because of a few international celebrities, most notably Amotti, the champion of Physical 100 Season Two and Physical: Asia. Many attendees insisted they were “just there for friends,” but their real Amottivation was obvious. Some fans were so devoted that they made a special trip to Changi Airport simply to welcome the Korean athlete upon his arrival.
Welcome parties are powerful things. They express honor, anticipation, and joy at someone’s coming. And they remind us of another story, an arrival that shaped all of human history.
Some two thousand years ago, a very different kind of ancient laborer stood awake beneath a quiet Middle Eastern sky. Shepherds, keeping watch over their flocks, were surrounded not by roaring crowds but by the ordinary sounds of grazing sheep. They had no idea that they were about to become the unexpected welcome committee for the greatest arrival the world would ever know. Without any effort or planning on their part, they would witness heaven’s announcement: “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”
This is the heart of Advent. The word comes from the Latin adventus, meaning “arrival.” During Advent, believers prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birth at Christmas, but we also remember and long for His future return. Advent looks back with gratitude and forward with anticipation.
I’ve often wondered about that first arrival. The most important figure in all of history – the One whose birth split time itself from B.C. to A.D. – entered the world with no crowds, no fanfare, no cheering multitudes. There were no cameras, no headlines, no influencers. The arrival of the Son of God went almost completely unnoticed. So heaven intervened. Angels pulled back the curtains of eternity to declare His birth to a group of unsuspecting shepherds. It was as if creation refused to let this moment pass in silence.
Yet Advent does not end at Bethlehem. It stretches into the future, to the promise of another arrival: the second coming of Jesus, when Christ will return to rule and reign over all nations.
One of my favorite Christmas carols isn’t really a Christmas carol at all. Joy to the World is an Advent hymn. “Let every heart prepare Him room… He rules the world with truth and grace…” These are words not only about His first coming, but about the day when Jesus returns as King, when the nations will see His righteousness and the wonders of His love with unmistakable clarity.
And when He comes again, there will be no obscurity, no hidden stable, no unheralded night. The Lord will not suffer the indignity of arriving unannounced. His arrival will command the attention of heaven and earth. All nations will welcome Him. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess. Creation itself will groan and rejoice. Even the lights of the heavens will dim in reverence, making way for the radiance of the King whose reign will never end.
This Advent, may this truth deepen our worship.
At the recent Antioch Summit, we sang an expanded version of Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. The final verse captured the hope of Advent so beautifully:
Turn your eyes to the heavens,
Our King will return for His own.
Every knee will bow, every tongue will shout,
All glory to Jesus alone.
May this vision grip our hearts. As we prepare for Christmas, may we also prepare room for Him, honoring not only the Child who came, but the King who is coming again.
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"Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End" Revelation 22:12-13.
