Advent (day 17)
THE THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT
FOCUS OF PREPARATION: JOY
What is the joy of waiting?
We have all experienced how waiting and anticipation heightens the joy of consummation. Two examples of this come to mind this morning: birth and Eve.
If babies came right after conception, I’m not sure “joy” is what we would feel in that moment. We want time … time to tell everyone our good news, time to paint a room and buy things, time to prepare ourselves for this new life. Instantaneous birth would rob us of the joy of waiting, but with nine months to prepare and imagine, the birthday comes as a glorious celebration!
Donald Miller surmises that Adam lived alone for a long time, maybe hundreds of years, naming the animals and such. There was “no suitable helper” to be found for him among the animals. Day after day and year after year Adam was faced with the reality that he was alone. Not without company, but without companionship.
When Adam first laid eyes on Eve, he broke out into song:
Adam, I’m sure, would have been glad to have Eve from day one. But the waiting, the unnamed longing for someone with flesh and bone like his, brought about a joy he could not have known otherwise.
There is in all of us a deep sense of longing that has to do with incompleteness … embryonic aspirations, parts of us that remain unknown, an ever-increasing awareness of our broken world. We may be redeemed and joyful in Christ, but we know there is more, that we were made for another world. Lingering in our souls is the eerie memory of Eden and the mystery of kingdom come.
Pregnancy strikes me as one of the few things that we are required to wait for anymore. In fact, almost every occasion of waiting is now largely seen as imposition. It’s not that life stops during pregnancy. We still have all the usual things to do. But the growing belly is a constant reminder of what is to come. There is nothing we can do to hasten it or prolong it. We can only prepare and wait.
Advent makes us wait and take note that this is how God chose to come into our world. Not in a flash from the sky, but as a seed in the womb of a woman. After thousands of years, the Messiah finally comes, and then there is waiting. For Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zechariah, it was a blessed time … time to take it all in, time to prepare and dream wild dreams, time to break out in song! (see today’s reading).
Come, Lord Jesus Come.
Come when you will.
We await your return.
Come when time is full,
Our pregnant hope due.
New life in our old world,
New bodies in full view.
Come in the morning,
Our long-awaited light.
The day breaks death,
The darkness now in flight.
Come with trumpet sound,
Our consummate song.
Resounding joy for all
Who have waited so long.
SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 2:46-80
FOCUS OF PREPARATION: JOY
What is the joy of waiting?
We have all experienced how waiting and anticipation heightens the joy of consummation. Two examples of this come to mind this morning: birth and Eve.
If babies came right after conception, I’m not sure “joy” is what we would feel in that moment. We want time … time to tell everyone our good news, time to paint a room and buy things, time to prepare ourselves for this new life. Instantaneous birth would rob us of the joy of waiting, but with nine months to prepare and imagine, the birthday comes as a glorious celebration!
Donald Miller surmises that Adam lived alone for a long time, maybe hundreds of years, naming the animals and such. There was “no suitable helper” to be found for him among the animals. Day after day and year after year Adam was faced with the reality that he was alone. Not without company, but without companionship.
When Adam first laid eyes on Eve, he broke out into song:
This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called woman,
For she was taken out of man.
Adam, I’m sure, would have been glad to have Eve from day one. But the waiting, the unnamed longing for someone with flesh and bone like his, brought about a joy he could not have known otherwise.
There is in all of us a deep sense of longing that has to do with incompleteness … embryonic aspirations, parts of us that remain unknown, an ever-increasing awareness of our broken world. We may be redeemed and joyful in Christ, but we know there is more, that we were made for another world. Lingering in our souls is the eerie memory of Eden and the mystery of kingdom come.
Pregnancy strikes me as one of the few things that we are required to wait for anymore. In fact, almost every occasion of waiting is now largely seen as imposition. It’s not that life stops during pregnancy. We still have all the usual things to do. But the growing belly is a constant reminder of what is to come. There is nothing we can do to hasten it or prolong it. We can only prepare and wait.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently (Romans 8:22-25).
Advent makes us wait and take note that this is how God chose to come into our world. Not in a flash from the sky, but as a seed in the womb of a woman. After thousands of years, the Messiah finally comes, and then there is waiting. For Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zechariah, it was a blessed time … time to take it all in, time to prepare and dream wild dreams, time to break out in song! (see today’s reading).
Come, Lord Jesus Come.
Come when you will.
We await your return.
Come when time is full,
Our pregnant hope due.
New life in our old world,
New bodies in full view.
Come in the morning,
Our long-awaited light.
The day breaks death,
The darkness now in flight.
Come with trumpet sound,
Our consummate song.
Resounding joy for all
Who have waited so long.
SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 2:46-80
posted by Bob | 11:56 AM
2 Comments:
Did you write that poem Bob? It's very good!
BTW, I think you meant Luke 1:46-80 for the reading. ;)
yes, luke 1. Since you think it is good, then I can't let Bob get the credit for this. I wrote it (Will). If you think it's bad, then you may continue thinking Bob wrote it.
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