It’s Saturday morning, settled in between Thanksgiving and the first Sunday in Advent; our house is still, waiting, and a little expectant. The past couple of days have seen some measurable progress in Rebekah’s recovery, but there’s a long way to go, and she really can’t do anything that she wants to in terms of beginning to prepare the house for Christmas. So it’s a quieter day than we would have preferred.
Here in North Carolina it’s late in the process of fall, but there’s still enough color around our neighborhood to grab my attention. So I’ve been watching, looking deeply into the trees, letting the natural progress of the seasons – in its unhurried fashion – remind me that things seldom move according to my timetable.
So there is expectancy, yes, but also some frustration; there is promise, but hesitancy too; hope, but at the same time uncertainty. All of this from the past few difficult weeks; all of this looking for reassurance; all this, waiting for Advent.
I watch the trees, moving inexorably into winter, letting their leaves drop when it is time, when they are ready. Yet, still, I am impatient, ready to get on with things now, tomorrow at the latest, because there is so much that is important to attend to, and why would God bring us here only to have us sit on the sidelines and wait?
But God, the scriptures tell me, appoints the acceptable time!
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord!” (Luke 4:18-19)
This is it! What are we waiting for! And yet we do; we must; we don’t have any choice in the matter.
Because it’s God’s timing, not mine. Eager as we are to move forward and into the exciting promise of what’s next, God still has us sidelined for a season. So we watch the leaves turn, transformed into brilliant colors, then fall to the ground in God’s good time; and we wait. And we wait.
And tomorrow is the first day of Advent, the season of expectation. Let’s not any one of us miss out on the beautiful, timely, just-the-right-time, coming of Jesus. Hearts open, spirits anxious, on the edge of our seats – we still wait…
– DEREK
“…the exiting promise of what’s next.” I don’t know that you meant to use the word “exiting”, but that’s not an unhelpful phrase for wrestling with the mystery of advent. In my personal journey and in ministry, many of the promises to which I firmly held most firmly have exited. Blessed is the day of their exit – for in their exiting, they gave way to something better, to something far better, to a less obfuscated experience with Christ himself. So too, we become all the more eager for them to exit. May the Lord in his mercy reveal himself all the more through the unexpected challenges of this particular advent.
Good comment – typo fixed anyway!!!
I’ve endured rough surgeries with months-long recovery time. I’ve been praying for Rebekah, and a thought was sent my way. Perhaps you might share this with you. There are varying degrees of pain, and varying “types” of pain. She had the excruciating pain which led to surgery. Then she had surgical pain, compounded by resulting post-surgery complications. But now, difficult as it may seem, she is experiencing a HEALING pain. When I realized that during my own recoveries, my whole mindset changed, as I knew that the healing pain would eventually lead to…HEALING. May God bless you both through this difficult, yet temporary, challenge with pain.
Thanks, Heather. We are moving forward, and feeling positive. Blessings to you – Derek