"We Wait For YOU"

You’re watching the news and the news anchors announce that Sue, the local meteorologist, will now tell you tomorrow’s forecast. Instead, Sue goes on for three minutes telling you what you already knew; what happened TODAY in the weather! And, when she is done, she teases that she will let you know what will happen for the weather tomorrow, right after these commercials…

 

What do you do when you hear; “We’ll be right back after these commercials”…? Do you wait patiently for Sue the meteorologist to return; or do you use the remote to find another station that will tell you tomorrow’s forecast?

 

Your answer will communicate whether you like to wait or not. Me; I don’t.

 

And it is just waiting for the weather forecast or an update on a news report or to find out which team won a sporting event that can cause me to be impatient. This whole season that we are in between early fall and early spring is a season of waiting. Trees are bare and we have to WAIT for next year’s leaves to once again brighten up our days. Daylight is shorter, weather is colder, and all around us reminds us that we have entered into another long season.

 

Even though Christmas television commercials have been running for over a month; Christmas isn’t here yet and it’s way too early to put up Christmas lights, decorations, or the tree.

 

Snow blowers and shovels are poised and ready to go; sweaters and warmer clothing wait patiently until it is actually cold enough to use any of them. Lawn ornaments and patio furniture are removed and stored away for the impending snow fall.

 

We have to wait for furnaces and radiators to heat up so that we are no longer cold when we first get up in the morning. A relative said to me recently that his new coffee pot takes almost four minutes to make a cup of coffee. Wow, talk about an inconvenience!

 

And, even though my favorite local ice rink has been sitting idle for nine months and it has refrigeration pipes, it still not flooded yet. Wait, why did us tax payers pay for a refrigerated rink if they don’t flood it when temps at night get past freezing???

 

And then to top it all, the church calendar throws in Advent to remind us that we are in a season in which we have to wait for EVERYTHING.

 

If this is your state of mind today then join me in using this tool of Advent and stop and actually wait.

 

Advent means “coming into place, view, or being; arrival”:  It is the period beginning four Sundays before Christmas, observed in commemoration of the coming of Christ into the world. It is also a reminder that we are waiting for Christ’s Second Coming.

 

Advent becomes a vehicle in which we can learn to hear the message to hang in there; something is on the way. And, I promise you that it will be worth the wait.

 

All throughout the Christmas story (as recorded by Luke in Chapters 1 & 2) we see stories of people waiting:

 

• We see Zechariah and Elizabeth waiting for their son.

 

• We see Mary and Joseph waiting (among other things) to see if there was any truth to what she was told about Jesus through angels and dreams.

 

• We read Isaiah’s words about the coming Messiah, and he never saw the fulfillment of them as he too waited.

 

• We see shepherds and inn keepers waiting through long nights as they went about their business.

 

• We see Simeon and Anna who had been waiting a VERY LONG time for the fulfillment of things foretold them as well.

• Matthew records that there were magi from the East who, too, had been waiting upon a vision given to them

 

We, too, are waiting for The Lord to walk into our situations and make things right. Waiting for fulfillment of Him returning to set the record straight and balance out all of the injustices of the world.

And might I add that He is waiting for us. Peter wrote:

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV)