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Read: Psalm 62:5-12
For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.
Psalm 65:5
Psalm 65:5 is one of the most beloved and beautiful lines in all of Scripture. Advent is about waiting. It is about soul work to prepare a place for a newborn babe.
Sometimes waiting is hard -- filled with fear and dread. We may wait for a medical appointment, or test results. We may wait for someone we love to arrive home safely, whether from a military deployment or simply coming home from school or work. Waiting can be fraught with anxiety.
Waiting can be joyful. We may be waiting for graduation, or a wedding. We may be waiting, as did Mary, for the birth of a child. Waiting can be exciting and wonderful.
But the notion of waiting for God strikes me as a different kind of waiting. If we believe that God is always here, and everywhere with us, what are we waiting for? Are we expecting God to come swooping in from far away? Are we expecting an abrupt invasion of the Holy?
Maybe, just maybe, waiting on God is about my learning to be still and experience silence so that I may create a space within myself to welcome the God who is already present. Maybe waiting on God is becoming more and more aware of the God who is already with us, but I may not yet be able to see clearly or fully.
Thomas Merton asked, “How does an apple ripen? It just sits in the sun. A small green apple cannot ripen in one night by tightening all its muscles, squinting its eyes and tightening its jaw in order to find itself the next morning miraculously large, red, ripe, and juicy beside its small green counterparts.” We wait.
We learn to be still, to stay silent, and wait — not for God to come zooming into our lives — but for our hearts and minds, our very selves, to open to the God who is indeed always and everywhere here, Emmanuel, God with us.
~Mary Caldwell
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