Awaiting Advent - Anticipating the Season of Anticipation
It feels like Christmas is starting earlier this year. I even listened to Christmas music on the way to church this week. But before we can celebrate the joys of Christmas morning, we have to sit in patient anticipation. We have to wait.
We’ve been doing a lot of waiting these past two years. Some of us have been waiting until all their loved ones were vaccinated before gathering in one place. Others have been waiting for it to be safe to travel again. We all have been waiting for a world free from masks and six feet perimeters. We’ve had a lot of practice in waiting.
Mary was a figure in the Bible who had lots of experience in waiting. In fact, you could say that Mary was the first practitioner of Advent. She was a young girl who had just received news that was going to change not only her own life but all of humanity. And then for nine months (or maybe a little less… I’m not sure when the angel appeared) she had to wait. Joseph was waiting too, of course, but he couldn’t fully understand the weight his future wife felt.
“So as we enter into our second Covid Christmas, may we remember Mary and her first Advent. Like many of us, she was likely alone and confused and scared, but she was also hopeful and patient too.”
During those nine months, Mary was looking back at the Jewish tradition that had brought her and her people to this moment – she was reflecting on the promises God had fulfilled and the way that God had been with them – and she was given the ability to look forward to the birth of her son who she was told “will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David” (Luke 1:32). In her waiting, Mary celebrated God’s goodness past, present, and future.
So as we enter into our second Covid Christmas, may we remember Mary and her first Advent. Like many of us, she was likely alone and confused and scared, but she was also hopeful and patient too. She remembered the Lord’s goodness in the past and anticipated the blessings God had in store for the future. With this in mind, let’s wait a little longer, for everyone to be vaccinated, for more people to have access to needed healthcare, for Christmas, and remember God’s promises to us.