Skip to main content

Waiting on Waiting


            Advent is the season of waiting.  Even the colors of the candles witness the anticipation of waiting.  The first three candles that you light are traditionally purple, while the fourth candle is pink signifying the approaching light of Christ on Christmas.
            Although the waiting of Advent is familiar and easy to calculate, it persistently calls us back to an uncomfortable reality.  We are longing for, desiring, and anticipating what we really want but don’t quite have.  Waiting is uncomfortable. 
            Although I can be sure that December 25 will come, many of the realities I wait for are not as certain.  Either way, waiting is rarely comfortable and never fun. 
            Advent has taught me how to wait.  It shows me the value of patience, anticipation and the value of waiting before you receive. 
            Jesus shows me how to wait.  As I wait on Him, He is waiting for me.  I am almost learning to find joy in waiting by learning the joy of waiting at Advent.  I’m not quite there, but I want to learn to wait like Jesus. 
            Even the story of Immanuel is a message of waiting.  The Nation of Israel had been waiting on their Messiah for hundreds of years before Jesus revealed Himself as the long-awaited anointed One.  It Thirty years after the angelic appearance to Mary and Joseph’s angelic dreams  Jesus made it evident that He was the Son of God, the One they had been looking for.  Jesus Himself waited for God’s direction and His perfect timing before He showed the world who God really is by His miracles, teachings and witness.
            Jesus told us that He couldn’t wait to have the Passover Dinner with the disciples on the eve of His arrest.  He too is waiting for the day that He will be united with His complete Bride (all Christians who believe in Him) at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. Mark 14:25 says: Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. Jesus is waiting for us.  Luke reveals Jesus eagerly waited for something: And he said to them, I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer (Luke 22:15).
            I’m learning to wait like Jesus.  He trusts God’s perfect timing.  I’m even recognizing that when I wait for something, I begin to value it much more. I also recognize that I grow in the process of waiting.  The simple act of waiting has a reason and a purpose in itself.
            This Advent I welcome the exercise of waiting.  I will be thankful for each day that brings my waiting closer to the object of my wait. And when I find myself at Christmas with the waiting over, I will also remember that I am still waiting for the return of Christ to earth.  Waiting is worth the wait!

Copyright © 2015.  Deborah R Newman  teatimeforyoursoul.com  All Rights Reserved.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Pilgrimage that Started with Tears

                Who would think I would shed tears deciding to set out on a wonderful journey that I have longed to take for many years?   Before I was ready to fully accept God’s invitation for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, I had to journey to a place of agreement between what my soul wanted and what the Lord wanted for me.   For years I have been declining opportunities to travel to Israel—not because I didn’t want to go but because I wanted to go with my husband by my side.   I know that God could have arranged that for me, but instead He asked me to accept that He wanted me to be willing to go and leave everything behind.   When I was asked to make a decision about going on a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, God gave me this verse in answer to my prayer -- Debi, observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess (Deuteronomy 11:8).   I decided through tears that I would go on
2 comments
Read more

Day Nine - Journey's End

    I didn't think I could write today, but do to bad weather we now have extra time at the airport. Today we looked over the model city and I can't believe all I have learned. Some of the excavations since the model was completed reveal differences in what they built in the model. What amazed me was that I could see what wasn't where I expected based on what I experienced. Here is a wide view of the Model City which is 1:5 scale.  It was created by a Jewish man who wanted his son to understand what Jerusalem was once like.  Someone said that if you didn't see Jerusalem during the time of Herod the Great, you have never seen a beautiful city.  Do you understand what I mean about how grand this Temple was?            Next we saw the Dead Sea Scrolls.  I learned a lot about the Essenes.  They lived like monks today.  Like Jesus, they were not happy with the way the Temple was being run and they came to the desert to offer truly holy sacrifices, untainted by the mismanage
2 comments
Read more

Not Treating Others as Their Sins Deserve

            Turning the other cheek has become a Christian cliché.   These beautiful and penetrating words of Jesus are minimized when we humans try to apply them without God.   The best we can do to achieve Jesus’ description in our power is repress our anger about the way someone sins against us.   This only serves to make us look stupid to the world, creates ulcers, or causes an unplanned, embarrassing, public explosion of anger.   Jesus spoke these words and many others like them to invoke the spiritual understanding that it is impossible to live out His directions for our lives without Him.   He has no intention of our trying to take His work on in our flesh.             It happens all the time in marriages and other relationships where one person who thinks they need to be a certain way to please God centers his or her relationships around keeping peace.   I don’t believe that kind of turning the other cheek is very pleasing to God.               No, God is inviting us
2 comments
Read more