Celebration of Waiting

Advent...it's a celebration of waiting...which makes no sense at all.

Who likes waiting?

I'm waiting for something.  Urgently.  This waiting is sort of consuming my life, blocking out the big picture.  I feel like I can't get on with things until the waiting is over.

My kids are waiting too.  They can hardly stand the wondering if they'll find what they desire most under the tree on Christmas morning.

We're all waiting for something...

So we need this season of celebrating waiting.  We're remembering that even though the waiting was long, oh, so very long, the Promise came. We're remembering all the waiting that ended with fulfilment.  Some of the waiting was hope-filled and some was anguished and despair-filled.  The fulfilment wasn't dependent upon the emotions of the those who waited but on the nature of the One who promised.  This is really good news for me.

Three hundred plus promises...endless waiting...and every promise was fulfilled.  Every single one.

The Son of God, Immanuel, became flesh and lived among us.  Light entered the darkness and nothing, absolutely nothing...no maniacal killer, no unfaithful friend, no sickness or sorrow...can EVER extinguish that light.

I don't understand the waiting.  Truly I don't.  Today seems as good a day as any for the waiting to end.  But this I know:  the waiting doesn't diminish the power of the promise.

This is the promise I'm holding on to today...

A child has been born--for us!  

The gift of a son--for us!  

...and there will be no limits to the wholeness he brings!

No limits.

Wholeness.

Come, Lord Jesus, come.

Isaiah 9:6-7 MSG

Revelation 22:20

God With Us

"...The virgin will conceive a child!  She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means 'God is with us')."


Most people in the English-speaking world are probably familiar with these words, even if they've never cracked open The Book.  I wonder how many aware of the context...


"...the hearts of the king and his people trembled with fear, like trees shaking in a storm."  They were surrounded by an enemy that seemed so much bigger and stronger than they.


Sounds familiar.  Does your heart tremble?  Are there situations in your finances, family and friends that cause your heart to sink?


Isaiah was sent to, "...tell him he doesn't need to fear the fierce anger of those two burned-out embers..."  


I guess their enemies didn't exactly appear to be "burned-out embers."  Neither do mine.  The enemies of fear, anxiety, discouragement...fill in the name of your enemies...seem alive and well and quite capable of overwhelming.  I forget that they are, in fact, a defeated foe.  Their power destroyed by the cross.  Power and authority over them granted to me.*


In the face of his doubt that these fierce enemies (who had a frightening track record!) were powerless to harm him, King Ahaz was challenged to ask for a sign, "Make it as difficult as you want--as high as heaven or as deep as the place of the dead."  He refused to ask for such a sign, but he was given one anyway.


"All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign.  Look!  A virgin will conceive..."  Yep, that's pretty difficult.  Now I can't prove to you that, in fact, a virgin did conceive.  Naysayers abound.  I believe.  This I know for sure--He is indeed Immanuel, God with me!


Signs of His presence surround me.  I hear it in the laughter of my children.  I see it in the glory of orange and pink splashed across the evening sky.  I see it in the lives of my friends Paul and Judy who are spending Christmas on the other side of the world caring for the heart-broken and hungry.  I hear it in the peaceful voice of my sister-in-love who still waits for her miracle. 


For all the promises I still wait to see fulfilled, I have the comfort of the fulfilment of this one.


He is present, with us, in the midst of the mess of life.


Immanuel.

Isaiah 7
*Ephesians 2:6