“Wait a minute!” I say that a lot. Usually when someone interrupts me and I want to finish what I’m doing, even if it’s not that important. But waiting a minute can be pretty difficult.
I get impatient when waiting in line. I don’t like it when I have to wait for someone to slowly cross the street. Waiting for a teenager to come home safely is a new experience for me and that has its own challenges too. Yesterday, at the children’s hospital where I work, a mom told me that waiting for the child’s test results to come back was the hardest part, as they wait to find out why the child is sick.
Waiting. We’re not very good at that anymore. Maybe we never were. But in this instant-everything modern age, we get frustrated if we have to wait for any length of time for the insignificant stuff and for the the things that really matter.
But the advent season is all about waiting. During advent, we’re reminded of all those centuries when God’s people awaited the fulfillment of God’s promises, the years of uncertainty, the time of doubt.
And God’s people continue to wait with longing, hope and
wonder
.
Waiting with wonder is a new side of waiting I’ve been introduced to recently. Instead of impatience and worry, I’m leaning in to wonder this advent season and I invite you to do the same.
Draw Near to Wonder
by Sara Are
I wonder if the earth is waiting for a Messiah like I am--
Trees bending toward love,
fireflies keeping a promise to be light,
the moon returning over and over again
with hope that the world will look differently this time.
I wonder if I’ll ever really know when it happens--
Those moments when God is in my midst.
Those all the time,
everywhere,
rare kind of moments that I’m terrible at
trusting, but know like a rainstorm.
I wonder, because I am human.
I wonder, because not wondering leaves me stuck.
And I cannot be stuck in a world
that separates children from parents,
women from their bodies,
and men from their emotions.
So I wonder.
Will the stars ever fall?
Will I see you face to face, and you see me?
Will the moon come back tonight and sigh, saying,
“Ah yes. I can see that God is here.
This is what I’ve been waiting for.”
Prayers by Sarah Are | A Sanctified Art LLC | sanctifiedart.org
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Michelle with your comments or questions.
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