Wait!

No one likes to wait. We’ve established businesses and systems to prevent us from having to wait in long lines. Amusement parks fill your wait time with fun activities to distract you from the long wait time.

My family loves to travel to Disney World for our family vacations. I must admit, when you’re at Disney you better plan on waiting. No matter when you go to the parks, you’re going to wait in at least one line. But I will tell you, Disney knows how to make you wait and not realize it. They pull out all the stops. From televisions to interactive games, from music to live demonstrations they have it all! They don’t want you to know how long you’re actually standing in line. This is just an example of our ever impatient culture. We don’t like to wait! But waiting is inevitable.

We’re currently in a time of the church called Advent. It’s a time of waiting. We are waiting for Christmas. Whether you’re a church person or not, you’re still waiting. We’re waiting on the best sale at our favorite retailer. We’re waiting on friends and loved ones to join us for a special day around the holidays. We’re waiting for something. Constantly waiting.

But how we wait is important. In the bible Jesus tells us that we need to be waiting. We need to wait with excitement and anticipation for his coming. In Mark 11, the people of Jerusalem were caught off guard. They had waited for so long that they forgot for whom they were waiting. It wasn’t until they saw Jesus riding on the donkey that they realized they were still waiting for someone. They were waiting for a king.

This Advent we wait. We wait for Christmas. We wait for the packages and the bows. We wait for the fun times with family and friends. But we also wait for someone. We wait for Jesus. He came to us in his birth on that first Christmas morning. He comes to us again in our baptisms as we are united with him in the miraculous promise of the resurrection. He reigns in us as we confess our sins to him and clothe ourselves with his righteousness. He lives through us as we carry this amazing promise of love and forgiveness to our neighborhoods and communities.

Wait well. Wait with expectation and joy. Wait with longing and hope. Wait for Jesus because he’s coming back. He’s coming back to gather us to be with him. But for now, we wait.