It’s Advent – the season of the church year leading up to Christmas. And with that, there’s a lot of anticipation that’s building as the decorations go up and people think about the excitement of Christmas morning.
For most of my life, it has been an exercise and opportunity to work on patience. I remember when I was a kid: 2:30 a.m. – “Can we open presents yet?” “No, not till morning. Go back to bed.”
2:39 a.m. – “Is it morning now?” “No.” “When is it morning? When your sister is up.”
2:42 a.m. – “She’s up.”
When I got older, I just sent whoever the youngest sister was (I have three younger sisters) into Mom and Dad’s room. Then, I had kids!
Around 4 a.m. – “Santa Claus came! You wanna see what he brought?” “It’s too early, Dad!”
I admit, waiting can be a rough thing for me, but there are things we need to wait for. There was a wine commercial when I was a kid that was put out by Ernest and Julio Gallo – “We sell no wine before it is time.”
So, we need to wait. Brian Zahnd lays out the problem about waiting like this, “The demand of the secular ‘Christmas Season’ is to be in a great hurry, but the aim of Advent is to instill a quiet slowness into our soul.”
So, Advent is about waiting, but waiting is so hard. And we are SO impatient. A young lady in a town where my father was pastoring decided she wanted to learn how to play the piano. She’s about three years younger than me, and when she went to her first lesson, she pulled out the sheet music for, “Here Come the Clowns,” and said, “Here’s what I want to play.” She didn’t want to take time to learn scales and arpeggios. Some things take time before the time is right, though.
Galatians 4:4 says, “But when the right time came, God sent his son.” (Galatians 4:4)
When the right time came … Why is it so hard to wait on God’s timing? It’s because it clashes with our desire for control, our timelines, our desire for instant results. In the waiting, our limitations and uncertainties confront us. In the waiting, we experience fear, frustration, and doubt even as we know in our minds that God is good, His timing is perfect, and He has reasons for when he does things.
In short, our need to “fix” things clashes with our need to trust God, and our impatience takes over.
Paul reminds us of something to help us in our impatience, “But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him’” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
As we approach Christmas, let’s keep that in mind. God’s timing is perfect, and he will come through for His children in just the right way at just the right time.
