Advent Waiting

I've never been a very patient person so waiting is hard for me. I would like to think that with age, I've become a more patient person than I when I was in my 20s. And even though waiting is hard, I really like the season of Advent. The word Advent means "coming" or "arrival."  It's the time in the church year where we try to be intentional about preparing for Christ's arrival both as a child in a manager and in Christ's glorious return to judge the living and the dead.

We've been holding midweek Advent services using the resource from Sundays and Seasons, titled "The Gifts of Advent" and I believe Advent is a gift. It's an opportunity to come to worship not just on the additional Wednesdays but also Sunday morning and quiet our hearts in this busy time. There have been Christmas'of past where I've not prepared and I found myself empty and disconnected come Christmas morning.

God bringing his son, Jesus into the world on the first Advent is a gift I want to celebrate while I wait for Christ's return in the second Advent. I want to be prepared to celebrate Emmanuel, which means "God is with us." And although I know that through the power of the Holy Spirit, God is with us now, I still want to prepare my heart to receive the gift of Emmanuel born to the Virgin Mary. 

So as a way to prepare, we wait. We wait to put the poinsettias in the sanctuary. We wait to sing the full selection of Christmas Carols. We wait for God to gift us again with God's son, Jesus. In this season of Advent, may your waiting be fruitful and may this prayer guide your waiting.

You keep us waiting.
You the God of all time,
want us to wait for the right time in which to discover
who we are, where we must go, 
who will be with us, and what we must do.
So thank you...for the waiting time.

You keep us looking.
You, the God of all space,
want us to look in the right and wrong places
for signs of hope,
for people who are hopeless,
for visions of a better world that will appear
among the disappointments of the world we know.
So thank you...for the looking time.

You keep us loving.
You, the God whose name is love,
want us to be like you--
to love the loveless and the unlovely and the unlovable;
to love without jealousy or design or threat;
and most difficult of all, to love ourselves.
So thank you...for the loving time.

And in all this, you keep us,
through hard questions with no easy answers;
through failing where we hoped to succeed
and making an impact when we felt we were useless;
through the patience and the dreams and the love of others;
and through Jesus Christ and his Spirit,
you keep us.
So thank you...for the keeping time,
and for now, and for ever. Amen

Iona Community, Scotland