Waiting

In our family devotions, we are following a series that has us work through a yearly cycle of the church calendar.  During each season, there are different ways in which we prepare ourselves for a time of devotion.  During the advent season, we pull an extra chair or set an extra place at the table in anticipation of the coming King.  He hasn't arrived at our devotion time.... yet. 

I wonder what it was like for the people of Israel to continue to wait for the long-promised and longed for Messiah.  I ordered something on Amazon the other day, and was forced to wait 48 hours for its arrival.  Clearly, many of us have lost what it means to wait.  We can have what we want or need generally right now.

Not so with the coming of Christmas.  I enjoy talking with our students about the coming of Christmas, and no matter what age (JK through grade 8), there is a shared sense of longing and waiting (sometimes patiently, often not) for the coming of the holiday.  

In the same way, we continue to wait and long for Christ's return.  We are broken, we experience pain, suffering, sin in a multitude of ways.  While Christ has not yet returned, we still prepare.  In our home, we have put up the Christmas tree, we work through advent devotions, we shift to Christmas music.  Although Christmas is not here yet, we live in such a way as to both anticipate it and also to celebrate its arrival.

What are we doing in the advent of Christ's return?  It will take perseverance, compassion, and integrity to wait and work as His servants, but we know that we do and will experience JOY in the knowledge that our world is in God's hands, and that He entrusts us to continue His work.