An angel appeared

Luke 1:38 NIV
[38] “I am the Lord's servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

This week we have been considering the next part of our Advent Journey. Last week we were 'waiting' this week we hear of a promise fulfilled. The appearance of an angel must have been a remarkable experience, the fact that the words ' do not fear' are spoken must give us some insight into the initial reaction of Mary. I'm sure that we would all have needed to hear the same spoken words of comfort!  

The fact that the waiting was over, at least in part, sees the Advent story pick up pace and so it is for us at school. Our Advent service tomorrow, the decorating of the Hall, the planning of Christmas parties, the sound of preparation for our usual spectacular Christmas productions ( Strictly Come Dancing really does have a lot to learn from these!) means that when we light our first advent candle we are very aware that the waiting is over and that the focus is clearly on the day that God's promise was fulfilled. 

The wait is almost over

A time of waiting – Looking forward to the fulfilment of a promise

As we move towards the celebration of Advent, we have been considering the subject of waiting in our assemblies. In this busy and modern day world, this is probablysomething we either don’t need to do anymore or struggle with. I noticed the other day my frustration when my email system decided to go slow, it took ten seconds to load, yet 15 years ago I would have waited ten minutes for the tape drive on my PC to load a single file and I thought that was amazing. Time moves on and our expectations seem to increase.

For Israel and the Jews the waiting game was something that they had coped with for hundreds of years. God had promised a saviour, but it seemed as if they had been waiting for so long. Waiting does I believe make us appreciate something more. Saving up for buying my first LP record was a major event, I still have it and love to play it on my turntable. The last album I downloaded from ITunes doesn’t seem to have the same value. 

The season of Advent is about looking forward to the fulfilment of a promise, a promise that Israel waited for hundreds of years to be fulfilled. We are fortunate that we live on this side of the fulfilment and Advent is a reminder to us to focus on what the birth of Christ really meant for those who had waited, but also for us who have to wait no more. 

Over the next few weeks we will be focusing on different aspects of the Christmas story, considering the emotions, reactions and responses of those who were involved. There will be a number of different events taking place across these weeks from our Advent service to our Christmas Journey production, to our Christingle service and Christmas plays. Please join us whenever you can as we make the journey to Christmas as others did many years before. The sense of excitement is beginning to build in school and as always this will be a very special time in the school year.