What is the longest you have ever waited for something? What is the longest you are willing to wait? We live in an instant society where we seem to have access to everything right at our fingertips whenever we want it. I don’t have to stand it line at a store; I can just order whatever I want from my phone. I don’t have to go to the library to find some piece of minute information, I can just looking it up on Google. We have come to expect things right away, and we get very impatient when we actually have to wait for something. Waiting for something for a few hours can feel like an eternity, let alone a few days, but what about a few centuries?
This first week of Advent draws our attention to the expectant waiting of the coming of a Messiah that weaves its way like a golden thread through Old Testament history. As God’s people were abused by power hungry kings, led astray by self-centered prophets, and lulled into apathy by half-hearted religious leaders, they continued to ask God to raise up a new king who could show them how to be God’s people. They yearned, hoped, and waited for a return of God’s dynamic presence in their midst, they prayed for a Messiah. And so, God revealed to some of the prophets that God would not leave His people without a true Shepherd. It was one busy night in Bethlehem when a star shone in the dark sky that the world saw that God’s promise was kept, that God has answered their cries and had sent the promised Messiah, the Savior of the world.
During Advent, we have an opportunity to renew our trust in God, and God’s promises for us. Encouraged by the marvelous things God has already done, we abide in hope for what is not yet, but will surely come to be. In Advent we renew our hope that God will keep his promises and will come among us to heal and to save. We can discover anew that the hopes and fears of all the years are met in a stable in Bethlehem, the place where God became flesh among us, and the whole world had a new reason to hope. Let us remember that God really can and does keep his promises and break into our everyday lives with the birth of a Savior, and so let us wait with expectant hope and prepare to celebrate the birth of the Savior.
