Advent
Waiting is never the easiest thing to do, counting the
minutes, hours or days until something planned and hoped for finally arrives.
As a child, waiting for the summer holidays, was at times excruciating. The
weeks seemed to slow down as if they were deliberately making me endure for
longer. Christmas morning, was always something I was impatient for to arrive.
I knew if I slept it would come sooner, but it seemed that sleep was the last
thing my excited body wanted to do!
Waiting, counting things down, looking for what is round the
corner, is one of the facts of life. We are, it would seem, always waiting for
something. But not always are we confident that it will come. The promise of
the hottest summer on record, never seems to fully materialise, the chance of
snow on Christmas day, remains just that , a chance. Yet in some ways it
is more likely to rain than snow.
Waiting; without confidence that something will happen. That a promise made will be fulfilled, is a futile and difficult challenge. But what if the thing we wait for is guaranteed, that’s different. My birthday will arrive, Christmas day will happen, I will get my summer break and despite my futile attempts to ignore it – my alarm will go off tomorrow and I will not be able to turn over and ignore it!
The wise men had been waiting for as long as they could
remember. Searching the sky for a special star, that would herald the birth of
a new King. They had no doubt that this promise would be fulfilled, they were
just missing the details about the time. The place of birth was in no doubt.
The moment that the star appeared must have been one of incredible excitement,
but it also involved a choice. What to do now? To leave their homes, commit to
travelling for many weeks, following a star! Not your everyday choice. But
choose to follow they did, their waiting wasn’t over, but the clock was ticking
and the destination was clear.
As we enter a time of advent the clock is also ticking for
us. But we know the destination and we know what was awaiting these travellers.
Our choice is to take the time to look beyond the commercial gloss that our
modern world has placed over the story of the first nativity. The bright lights
shine in our towns and cities, but to what do they point to?
As we move towards Christmas we will be taking the time to
consider this and we look at the promises that God had made about this child.
What they meant for those who waited and what they mean for us today. For
Advent is all about looking to the one who came as a babe in arms, was born in
a manger, celebrated by angels, forced to be a refugee and yet proclaimed
himself to be the light of the world. That was something certainly worth
waiting for.
