Expectant Waiting

We are the people of instant gratification.  We put things in the microwave and they’re cooked within seconds, we get food out of windows within two minutes of ordering, advent-christmas-candle-10have information instantly available at the touch of our fingertips and travel at speeds unheard of in previous generations.  So having to wait for something important can seem unreasonable; even cruel at times.

It’s hard to wait for a job after months of interviews, for a relationship to heal, or for a long illness to be over.  In all our waiting, we may wonder if God’s left us on our own!  But we can learn from other people’s stories, and they tell us of God’s faithfulness and perfect timing, timing so often different from our own.

In the book of Luke, we’re told how Zechariah and Elizabeth waited into their old age to have a child, how they had begun to despair, and how the Lord with dramatic flair, announced they would have a son.  Yet even that son, John the Baptist, whose ministry was to announce the coming of the Messiah, had his own season of wondering, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Luke 7:18-23).

God came through for them in different ways, but true to form, He came through. And He still does.

But what we often lose while we’re waiting is the value of the waiting itself. Because it is in the season of waiting we grow stronger, and there’s a special blessing reserved for the woman or man who honors God by saying, as Mary did when she received the amazing news about her own role in this season,

“Behold the maidservant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to Your Word.” Luke 1:18