The first week of Advent is all about waiting and hope. Both are themes that have featured heavily in my life. I’m still convinced that waiting is a hard lesson to learn (‘it’s certain that waiting’s the most bitter lesson a believing heart has to learn’, as Michael Card so eloquently puts it in his song, ‘Maranatha‘). We are impatient people, eager to move on to the next thing, eager to see God move. Why He makes us wait is often a source of confusion, bewilderment and pain. Christmas reminds us that there is a right time, however. (Gal 4:4) Waiting for God’s timing is essential.
Hope fuels us through the waiting, convincing us that what God has promised, He will fulfil. I’ve always been encouraged by the Message verison of Lamentations 3:28-32. There, the author knows all about desperation and pain. He is living in exile, far from home. Life is ‘heavy and hard to take’, he says. Yet his advice is to ‘enter the silence. Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions. Wait for hope to appear.’
As we seek God’s face in the waiting (instead of substituting our activity for His apparent inactivity), our perspective shifts. We realise ‘the “worst” is never the worst.’ That is because ‘the Master won”t ever walk out and fail to return.’ We realise God never leaves us or forsakes us, even in exile, even in barren times. We understand afresh that God’s ‘stockpiles of loyal love are immense.’ Right now, I’m stockpiling festive food for my family at Christmas, and there are times when I feel like I’m running out of storage space! God’s love is there for us in abundance, even in the waiting. He never runs out of love, mercy, grace and kindness. As Matt Redman puts it, ‘it’s not even halfway empty.’ (‘Halfway Empty’)
So as we wait, we hope. As we enter the silence and plead with God to fulfil His purpose for our lives, we look ahead to the stable. Who could have ever predicted salvation would come that way? Who could have imagined the revolutionary way God would work salvation into our history? It was all God’s work: ‘the Lord has done this, and it is marvellous in our eyes.’ (Ps 118:23) It’s wonderful to see. Wait and hope. Wait with hope. Hope as you wait. And repeat…