Waiting

Advent is not one of the more popular seasons on the Christian calendar which explains the reason it is often either ignored or abused.  The abuse occurs as the church turns it into a pre-Christmas season. Nativity scenes complete with the baby Jesus adorn the landscape and the church buildings are decorated with greenery and pseudo candles.  The first day of Advent sends the church into a period of frenzied activity with all the getting ready.  And while some use the season in ways not really in keeping with the spirit of Advent, others just ignore it altogether.

 

It is easy to understand.  One of the themes of Advent is waiting and we do not wait very well.  It is hard for us wait for God to do what God is going to do.  We usually have a better way,  or at the very least, a faster way.   How easy it is to forget that God is not in a hurry.  We work with a timepiece and a calendar.  He works with eternity.  Mary and Joseph had to wait nine months to see exactly what it was that God was doing in their lives.  Abraham waited twenty-five years for God to deliver on His promise of a son.  Elijah waited three years for God to send some rain on parched earth.  The Hebrews had to wait forty years to get to the Promised Land.  Read the story in the Word and know that it often the story of someone waiting on God to do what God said He was going to do.

 

Advent announces that God is about to do something new.  Of course, we no longer see the birth of Jesus as something new.  It is an old story, but it is an old story which is fleshed out in thousands of new and different ways among us.  While we may strain and push against it, we find ourselves waiting for God to act and bring us through to a new day as we struggle in situations beyond our own ability to change or handle.   What we want to happen today is mostly important only to us and often becomes the moment when we hear God saying, "Not yet, maybe later."  Advent reminds us that time does not really go according to our schedule.  We are not in charge of the time allotted to our living.  Life is, therefore, about waiting on Him to see what it is that He is going to do.