Slideshow image

 Dear Friends,

Waiting is never easy.

Rarely do I choose to wait in a long line anymore, or for a service to be performed- if I don’t have to. We generally don’t like people who make us wait, or things that “just take too long.” We certainly do live in a high speed, fast-food, “I need it now” society. While immediacy brings some great conveniences that I enjoy, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on the season of advent for its incredible ability to make us wait.

Sometimes I think children are the ones who remind us what Advent is all about. Experiencing Advent through the eager eyes and hearts of our children is insightful. It’s excruciating for children to wait for Christmas as we take a month to decorate the house, wrap presents, and talk about what and why we are celebrating.

Waiting is good for them, but it’s good for us too.

As we get our homemade Advent Calendar ready for David this year, and as I prepare to take a half hour each day to sit with a cup of tea and read my Advent study book, I anticipate the spirit of this beautiful waiting. We don’t get it all at once, just little tastes that keep us longing for what is to come. I’m not sure how I could communicate this truth any better to David, or even to my own heart. The season of Advent was intentionally designed to reflect the whole truth about Christ’s birth into this world: people were waiting a long time, hungering for more, hoping for something so good they could hardly even imagine it.

I remember several times being grateful for the nine months of pregnancy. I wouldn’t have even known it would take so much time to prepare, inside and out, for the arrival of a little one. I’m pretty sure given a choice I would have opted for a few weeks over nine long months. But, what a process I would have missed by not waiting.

Not only is this season of Advent intentional, it is important, perhaps even (dare I say it?) more important than the actual day of Christmas, if only because it calls us to wait and in our waiting we yearn for God. We prepare our homes and greater still, our hearts, for Christ to be born yet again.

He’s not here yet, but he’s coming.  This Sunday, we begin our time of waiting with great expectancy!

Peace, light & hope,

Andrea+