It is the message of this Advent season. There are two ways to approach it. We can see it as a message of the end of time and become so distracted by it that we lose sight of the hopefulness of the message. It is easy to look at the world as we live in it, as we know it, and see signs of decay and depravity. It is easy to see it as a message of terror.
Advent is a season of hope, hope for the future in the light of present reality.
Ours is a world of harsh realities. There are any number of issues to illustrate that fact AIDS, abuse, violence, ecological disasters. We may well wonder what the world is coming to. Perhaps as Christians it is more important to keep in mind what is coming to the world. It is time for us to make preparations, not in fear of what is to come, but in faith in God.