Are you good at waiting? Or do you loathe it?

I wonder if with the task of 'waiting' we fall into two distinct categories, we're either good at it, or it takes all our strength to grit our teeth and get through it... if we're confessing, I more often fall into the later category. 

I like to know what is happening. I like to know where I stand with things. And whilst I acknowledge that there are some things where anticipation and waiting are good, generally I find those limbo, in-between phases hard. 

The season of Advent is upon us. On Sunday we enter into a new season, a new church year. Advent. For many it's the build up to Christmas- running around ordering food, getting presents, decorating houses and so on. However, for Christians, as well as all that good stuff, it's also a season where we are invited to enter into what it is to watch and wait. Bit of a hard sell ay?

During Advent we are asked to embody, to empathise with those who waited and longed for Jesus' birth. To endeavour to understand the pain of what it is to wait to see if the promises and prophecies would be fulfilled, that a King would come, a Saviour would walk the earth. Not forgetting also, there was around a 400 year gap between the Old and New Testament... hundreds of years of people waiting, desperately hoping and longing for a King and Saviour. This puts my frustration of how long my laptop takes to load into perspective! And yet, I suspect many of us can relate to the pain of waiting, the pain of longing for something to happen, for God to come through on a promise or to move. 

I do think it is good for us to enter into this season of watching and waiting. It reminds us that within our limbo phrases, God is with us. It also reminds us of what we are currently waiting for now- for Jesus to come again. And I hope, it's a comfort to all who are currently waiting- for those health results, for that decision at work, for that situation to change- that God does answer eventually. 

I want to add here that the answer might not be what we want! Israel was promised a King and yet Jesus was born as a baby, in a town in the middle of nowhere to an ordinary couple. Not quite the King they expected. And yet, through Jesus we are reminded of the promise- God with us. God is with us. 

Please do throw yourselves into the build up to Christmas with family, friends and neighbours but also, give space to enter into this season of waiting. Wait with us and feel the joy on Christmas Day as we celebrate the promises fulfilled in Emmanuel, God with us.

Please do see what services we have to enable you to enter into this time of waiting and join with us in prayer and song, saying: O come, O come Emmauel.

Laura Verrall-Kelly

December 23