5 December 2015
Saturday of the First Week of Advent
Patience is a virtue, but it’s really hard to learn. You have to trust that what comes later is going to be better than what is right in front of you. I’ve been trying to learn patience since I was a child–I may be only marginally better now. It’s so easy to go with what you see over what you don’t see. But the response for today’s Psalm tells us that “blessed are all who wait for the Lord.” God is asking for us to be patient. A little while longer, and things will be right.
Advent is a season about waiting. For four weeks, we hear readings about the promises of God’s Kingdom. We are reminded that at the end of these weeks of waiting, the joy of Christmas will come. We experience waiting, and we experience the joy that comes at the end of waiting. Advent’s waiting and Christmas’ joy is the Christian life in miniature as we wait all our lives for the Second Coming. Now, we can take time to really practice our waiting game, and experience a small taste of the joy which we will have at the Second Coming. As we go first through Advent and then Christmas, we can begin to experience the truth of the Psalm’s refrain.