I love the advent season! I love the anticipation – the looking forward to of it all. But I’m not a huge fan of waiting.
So, why is waiting during advent different than other times or ways of waiting?
What does your relationship with waiting look like? Are you patient in your waiting, or are you a toe tapper? A watch watcher?
What are you waiting for?
You wait in line at the grocery store. OR you don’t, and you go to self-checkout.
You wait for the barista to finish making your beverage. OR you don’t, and you order ahead and swing by in time to pick it up.
Or maybe your waiting is for something a little more crucial…
You wait for that special someone to notice you.
You wait for that relationship to be restored.
You wait for the doctor’s office to call with the negative test results. OR depending on the kind of test it is, you wait for positive results.
The way we wait matters. Longing is not the same as anticipation.
Longing for that special someone to notice you is a different kind of waiting than anticipating your bride walking down the aisle toward you or seeing your groom’s face as you take you first steps down the aisle.
Longing for that relationship to be restored is a different kind of waiting than anticipating the first encounter where you get to spend time together after the bonds have mended.
Longing for the negative or positive test results from the doctor is a different kind of waiting than anticipating tomorrow’s last chemo treatment or dressing your newborn in their “coming home from the hospital” outfit.
Longing is not the same as anticipation. Anticipation is wrapped up in hope. Waiting in anticipation…waiting with hope is a very different thing.
Sometimes still difficult. But always better.
Imagine a young girl – betrothed – waiting for her wedding day. But her waiting is interrupted by a visit from an angel who tells her that she’s not only waiting for her wedding day, but she’s now also waiting for the arrival of her first-born child. And this isn’t just any first-born child. It’s her first-born, and so that matters very much. But this child is also the long-awaited savior of the world. He’s her son, but he’s also her savior.
Longing turned to anticipation.
Waiting with hope.
Imagine how that changes the waiting for her.
Ask any mother or father what their waiting was like, and you’ll hear stories of both longing and anticipation.
And Mary wasn’t the only one waiting. Joseph was waiting, too.
Matthew 1:21-23 tells us what the angel says to Joseph after Joseph discovers his beloved is pregnant before their marriage:
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”
What are you waiting for?
Or maybe the question is how are we waiting? Are we longing for something or are we waiting in anticipation? Are we waiting with hope?
Why is waiting during advent different than any other times or ways of waiting? Because it matters how we wait.
And we already have the answer: Immanuel – God with us.
Wait with Immanuel.
Wait with God.
Wait with hope.
Inviting Immanuel into your longing and into your anticipation…waiting with him…waiting with hope makes all the difference.
What are you waiting for?
If you’d like to talk more about waiting with hope, send me an email or schedule some one-on-one time with me. And consider subscribing to my blog where I post lots of helpful suggestions on how you can begin (and continue) this journey of recovering your blueprint!
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