Waiting…

For over four hundred years, they waited; most getting on with their lives. A few waited intentionally, attentively.

The Romans turned the screw of empire expansion. Now the waiting becomes urgent. “Where is the Messiah? Our Moses figure? Where is the Kingdom?”

Hidden away, in a small town, in a small cave behind a small pub, a couple wait. Watching and counting every contraction. With each contraction comes more pain and they wait anxiously. In the midst of her cries of pain, there is a waiting for it all to be over.

Another cry goes out. An ancient form of ethnic-cleansing is under way. All boys, 2 years and younger to be slaughtered. The couple wait, along with hundreds of others; waiting to flee for their lives and the lives of their newborn. They flee to Egypt. Hmm. Sounds familiar. And then wait for it to be safe to return. Today that sounds familiar, although now the coin has flipped. And the world waits, largely in silence, with bated breath, for the carnage to end, some waiting for Yeshua the Messiah, to have his way; waiting for the mindless death and destruction to be replaced with peace and reconciliation.

Two thousand years on, and still we wait. We wait for buses, and phone calls, and emails; we wait for the other to change their ways, while they wait for us to change our ways. Maybe we shouldn’t wait, but just get on and do our bit, allowing the flow of Grace and Gratitude, Kindness and humility to change us first.

We wait for what or who we cannot see. Sometimes we wait, not knowing what we wait for; often what we think we are waiting for, is not what arrives, especially when it comes to our friendship with Papa. As the years go by, we discover that He rarely does what we are waiting for. You can’t cage God like that.

I’m starting to get excited. Waiting for 21 days to fly by, when they will crawl at a snail’s pace. They always have! Waiting to see what I have got for Christmas, when I already know what awaits me.

Advent, a time of waiting. Of pregnant waiting. Looking for love, joy, peace and hope to break out before our eyes, while they wait to erupt within each of us, spilling out into the world that we live in to bring Grace and Gratitude, to those we bump into, and those we pray for. All it takes is a smile, a Good morning, a kind word, a generous gesture. I think we would be surprised that this is what the other, the next one has been waiting for. And maybe it is what I have been waiting for, for myself, the other, and for the God who is Love.