Advent 2016: An Invitation to Wait

The following reading comes from Word & Craft’s 2016 Advent Devotional. If you would like to download the full devotional, you can do so here. 

I hate waiting. Ever since I was a kid waiting has made the top 10 list of my least favorite things to do. Whether I waiting for my turn on the slide, waiting to use the glitter when the girl next to me in Sunday School was finished, or waiting through the previews for the movie to start, I would tap my feet and audibly sigh in anguish. As an adult, I would like to imagine I am better at waiting, but my imagination isn’t that good. Waiting for change, waiting for the doctor to call with the results, waiting for plans to play out or dreams to come to reality can easily be my undoing.

Waiting gets to the grit of life. Waiting suspends us through time, extending our hopes and fears, and exhausting our endurance. We can tap our feet, fumble with our keys, and sigh in exacerbation, but, more often than not, we are powerless to bring our waiting to an end.

I used to think that waiting came in seasons. And, while in some ways it does, the reality is that we’re all waiting for something. We’re waiting for the light to turn green, waiting for an opportunity, waiting to be done with school, waiting for a job, waiting for a spouse, waiting for a baby, waiting for direction, waiting for healing, waiting for comfort. It may be our least favorite thing, but here we are nonetheless.

Advent is all about the fulfilment of waiting. The reality of the Christmas narrative in the New Testament is the fulfilment of the Old Testament’s promises; those who were waiting for a Savior for hundreds of years find that their waiting has come to a screeching halt in the birth of Christ. So if Advent is about the fulfilment of what was waited for, why does the season so easily provoke our longings? Why it is that when we set out the holiday décor we are pinched by the pang of what is not-yet? When you’re waiting, even this season of fulfilment can provoke your longings all the more.

So this is the invitation I want to extend to you: Come in, sit down. Have a cup of coffee and wait with me. Together we will meander through the Biblical Text and meet characters who are also waiting. We will meet long-known characters and consider the many ways their waiting looks a lot like ours. And most importantly, we will sit in the thick of God’s Word. We will, in the midst of our own waiting, plant our feet solidly on the promises of God. We will fix our eyes firmly on His character knowing that everything else will disappoint us.

Will you join me? Wait with me?

God, would You Yourself come and sit with us? Would You speak to us through Your Word and teach us through Your Text? Would You come and collide with us in Your way of power and gentleness and make Yourself known to us? Please come. We’re waiting.

Download your free Advent Devotional here.