Advent I: Waiting

Like eating my vegetables, being told there’s value in waiting was advice that never had time to go in one ear and out another. If I could see something, imagine something, I didn’t see why I should have to wait. I’m grateful for the ability to see and imagine, but I’m not proud of my inability, or my unwillingness, to wait. It has often done me more harm than good and prevented me from the wonder that’s found in waiting.

Nowhere was that impatience more evident than during my childhood days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The music could begin soon enough, tree put up fast enough. Each day after school I would go into the living room and organized (and count) the presents as they slowly found their way beneath the tree. By the 24th, my brother and sisters tell me, I actually began shaking in anticipation of what was to come.

Fortunately, with age, I’ve found a deep joy in the days leading up to Christmas - Advent, as the church calls it. It is the season of waiting, and now it is that waiting I treasure most about Christmas. With each carol played, each ornament placed, and each candle lit, my soul takes a deep breath and dreams dreams like at no other time of year. What if . . it sighs with childish wonder. 

Fortunately, I have all month to contemplate my answer. What a gift it is, a gift found only in waiting.

Come Thou Long Expected Jesus (feat. Flo Paris & Sera Oakes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GMYo2pqAv0

(If you listen all the way through, you’ll see why I picked this version.)