|
Advent is a season of spiritual preparation and waiting.
I’ve done a lot of traveling and waiting in the past year. Travel—especially air travel—always seems to involve more time waiting than moving. I wait to get through security. I wait at the gate. I wait for everyone to board – and on and on.
Looking around I have realized that most of the time I’m looking for ways to remove myself from the wait. I used to read a magazine or newspaper; these days I’m looking at my phone. I find myself scrolling through the news or email or social media.
I was in the Atlanta airport recently and there we all were, hundreds of us, glued to our screens. Occasionally, I would look up and marvel at the variety and beauty of the people walking past me. There were all ages, all colors, all sorts of dress, from the most elegant to the most informal and from the most ordinary to the most foreign and exotic.
I remembered a quotation from Rabbi Joshua Ben Levi: “A procession of angels walks before a person wherever he goes blowing the shofar and announcing: Make way for the image of the Holy One.”
I imagined looking up from my phone in the airport and seeing that procession of everyone passing in front of me. It was quite a sight, but the real gift was seeing all those images of the Holy One, God himself, herself, themselves, infinite variety passing. The destination ceased to be so important. A boring wait was transformed, and the moment was filled with wonders.
The next time you are “stuck” waiting somewhere, imagine the angels and look for the image of God following close behind.
| 
