Advent Waiting

BY MARY REARICK PAUL

Advent is a season of anticipating the arrival, or “advent,” of Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah and King. This celebration of the good news of the in-breaking of God’s Kingdom is also an invitation to a life of prayer for Christ’s presence to be known in you, me, and our world through the promise of Christ’s return. Advent holds a yearning and waiting for us to receive anew the activity of God’s breath in our lives. As I write these reflections, I am physically sitting in my house that is mostly packed up, staged for potential buyers while waiting for many unknowns to be made known. It is a season where I am walking with God by faith as I do not know where I am to go next but know it is time to leave.

Advent is a gift for those of us sitting in a waiting room. Waiting for a glimmer of light, for an open door, a direction for our next step. The prayers of Advent point to the horizon with faith that hope is coming, peace is coming, joy is coming, love is coming, Christ is coming. And in beautiful ways Advent calls the whole community of God to prepare for God’s kingdom to come and to pray beyond our personal experiences, naming the yearnings and groanings of the wider world. We are not to be simply satisfied with the ways God has been at work in our lives but are called to join the hard waiting in the yearning prayers of our neighbors. If you are sitting in a waiting room, Advent calls us to wait with you. I am so thankful for the faithful friends and family who have been taking turns sitting in the waiting room with me, praying over each hard decision, showing up in various ways, reminding me I am not waiting alone. And still, waiting is hard.

I love this description of waiting by Tara Beth Leach: “Sometimes I wait like a child pressing her face up to the window in anticipation of her parents coming home. Sometimes I wait like a child throwing herself on the floor of Target because she can’t get what she wants. Sometimes I wait like the hostess who lights up her home with candles in anticipation of her guests. Sometimes I seek to numb the pain of waiting.”(1)

It takes the creation of quiet spaces for me to fully settle into advent waiting. A waiting that breathes in God’s word and promises. The season of Advent is an invitation to wait as well as prepare. That is to make room for the surprising ways that Christ shows up. The promise of Christ’s coming is good, and here is my confession; I not only pray for Christ’s coming, but I would like to dictate when and how. The when is, of course, now. I like instant/quick results, and I also know the best things in life take time. Things like a homemade feast, a flowering garden, a new-born baby, a new skill or a deepening love take time, preparation, and patience.

The “how,” I often imagine, is a way forward that makes “sense” to me and resolves the questions with as little stress as possible. It takes the creation of quiet spaces for me to settle into an open waiting. A waiting that breathes in God’s word and promises. It can take sheer will to engage in some practices of stillness. Occasionally I will use a stopwatch, as I recognize my measure of time spent in silence needs to be stretched by real numbers. Some of my advent practices include:

• Turning off all the lights except for the Christmas tree and candles and honestly name my hopes and fears, remaining still before God.

• Walking at night around my neighborhood, listening to the sounds about me, praying for the homes I walk by.

• Making space for some creativity, such as sitting with paper and watercolors, and allowing a calmness to settle so my mind can wander anew.

Another practice is to pray a hymn of the season; this expresses a growing desire that Jesus would be born anew. The lyrics lend me language as I pray for a deeper, wider, and wilder openness to God’s ways being born in me and through me. In the intimate places of darkness in our lives, in our families, in our churches, in our communities, Christ is faithful to come and bring new life as we bring our hopes and dreams. This lyric from “O Little Town of Bethlehem” captures the promise of God for all of us sitting in waiting rooms: “Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light; the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight”

Here I am, God. In this season of waiting and wondering, I open myself to you. Come Lord Jesus.

Amen

Dr. Mary Rearick Paul, D.Min, is a minister and Vice President of Student Life and Formation at Point Loma Nazarene University.

(1)https://www.facebook.com/TaraBeth82/photos/preparationi-havelived-the-wilderness-far-beyond-than-whats-comfortable-whatma/273621471395473/?utm_source=chatgpt.com&_rdr&checkpoint_ src=any

(2)“O Little Town of Bethlehem” author, Phillips Brooks, and the composer, Lewis H. Redner, Brooks wrote the text in 1868