“Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are those who wait for him.” - Isaiah 30:18
The advent season is a celebration of waiting. On a material level, we wait for Christmas Day and joyful celebrations with family and friends. On a much deeper, spiritual level, we remember how the people of Israel waited for their Messiah, Jesus Christ. We remember our Savior’s life, ministry, death and resurrection, and celebrate as we wait for His return. In many ways, the advent season is in direct contradiction to our natural inclinations that say everything is better when provided immediately and tends to see waiting as a curse. Celebrating and waiting rarely go together in our minds.
My current season in life often leaves me feeling like my world revolves around waiting. Providing foster care is a journey of unexpected ups and downs as I find myself waiting for trainings, waiting for phone calls, waiting for court dates, waiting for paperwork, waiting for children to arrive, and then (often tearfully) waiting to say goodbye to the children I have learned to love. This season of waiting during advent has helped to focus my mind on the experiences of the Israelites as they waited for their Messiah to come, and the experience of all believers today as we wait for our Messiah’s second coming. It has also shown me that waiting in joy doesn’t come naturally for me. Often my seasons of waiting involve anxiety, confusion, and tears, as I try to unravel what the future may hold. Many days, waiting doesn’t feel like a celebration to me.
I have a young friend who enjoys waiting. Like most ten-year-old kids, he is very interested in the day when he will be “grown up” and able to walk through the parking lot alone, buy pretzels whenever he wants them, and drive a bright red pickup truck. For my friend, the future seems full of endless opportunities. Given his excitement about the future, I would have expected him to be impatient or even frustrated at the need to wait. But rather than frustration, his outlook tends to be one of perpetual anticipation. When I remind him that the time for walking alone in parking lots or determining his own bedtime has not yet come, he gives me a big grin and happily declares, “Not yet!” He accepts that the future will be full of joyful surprises (even if he doesn’t know what they are) as earnestly as he accepts that Christmas morning will bring presents to unwrap.
God calls His people to wait, but He doesn’t ask us to wait in frustration. In Psalm 27:13-14 David declares, "I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” I want to live as though I believe I will see the goodness of the Lord. I want to look forward to my future because I believe it to be full of blessings and opportunities to know my Lord better. But often my pessimistic view of life’s better represented by the thought “hurry up and let me know the worst” instead of joyfully anticipation of blessings yet to come. When my waiting becomes laced with anxiety and doubt I am letting my fear of the future erase God’s promises of grace from my mind.
I’m currently waiting on an update from our social worker. I checked my email three times while writing this article. I checked my phone twice. I’m still not good at waiting. But I’m learning to hold the future with an open hand - not because I have pessimistically vowed to accept the worst but because I am joyfully anticipating God’s best. I don’t know what the future holds, but I know the One who holds the future and He is able to do abundantly more than I even hope (Ephesians 3:20). It is because of His promises that I can celebrate in the midst of my waiting and look forward to the future as I joyfully declare “Not yet!”
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