The church carries  Christ’s presence as both “already” and also ”not yet”. We know Jesus is “with us always, even to the end of the age”, and yet we pray, “Come Lord Jesus.”

We know that there is a sense in which Jesus is with us now and yet there is also a sense in which Jesus’s presence with us in this moment is hidden—not presently realized in its fullest.

During this season, we live in this precise tension, being grateful for the one we already call Immanuel (God with us), and the one for whom our hearts long to meet. Today, let your prayer come out of this “already” and “not yet”!