Do you ever feel like (as John Mayer would put it) you “keep a-waiting, waiting on the world to change”? Once [insert thing here] happens, then life will finally be better! Maybe it is a new job, relationship, change in government, or season. Then, after a long time, it still feels like … waiting. If waiting is part of the human experience, then what does it mean to wait with hope?
At the end of my first semester of college, I could not wait to get home, see my family, and sleep in my own bed. There was just one thing in the way: my Hebrew final. Like all the cool kids at Luther College, I decided to take Hebrew as a foreign language. For the final, we had to translate some assorted passages from the Old Testament.
I slowly (and painfully) began translating Isaiah 9:2, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.”
I had heard this passage hundreds of times growing up, but there was something different about translating it. I was jarred from the simple reciting of a common passage into a deep wrestling with the hope it pointed to. It was an act of worship!
One of the problems with waiting is that it dulls us out; we become bored and impatient. My challenge for all of us this Christmas season is to allow ourselves to be surprised by Christmas. To let God’s word (both Scripture and JESUS!) challenge us and move us from where we are to where God is calling us to be. Just like the Israelites waiting on the Messiah to come or the church waiting on Jesus to return once again, may our lives and waiting be marked with an expectant hope that the Savior of the world is near and coming soon!
Reflection:
- What are some ways we might be able to be “surprised by Christmas” this month?
- Make a list of things you are waiting on. Pray over this list, handing it over to God in his timing and purposes.