Waiting

At this Christmas time, as we Christians turn our eyes toward a 2,000-year-old manger, we are easily caught up in the bustle and joy of the celebration. And in many ways, that’s how it should be.

But have you ever considered what went before?

I’m not just talking about Mary’s nine-month pregnancy or the stunning announcement to Zachariah some six months before that. No, go back farther, much farther. Back to the silence. To the stillness. To the waiting.

Oh sure, things were happening then. Life probably went on pretty much like it always had after the ink had dried on the parchments of Malachi and the other prophets. Babies were born. Young people married. The elderly died. Kingdoms rose and fell. Hours simply melded into days. Days gelled into weeks. Weeks melted into years. Years fused into decades, then centuries. And the silence of God continued, promises unfulfilled.

Did some wonder what God was doing? Did they fear that His silence meant He no longer cared what happened? Did they cry out to Him, asking why He tarried so long?

Or perhaps they simply forgot. Forgot to wonder. Forgot to seek. Forgot to wait. It’s so easy to do.

But often the times when God seems most inactive are the times He is busily preparing for His greatest works. We would see that if we dared to wait! But we get impatient and distracted. Life moves on and we move on with it. How often do we, like those in the first-century, miss the spectacular acts of God simply because we did not wait?

For while God may take centuries to prepare, He moves swiftly and completely unstoppable when the time is right, like it was 2,000 years ago. In a moment, in a breath, in a heartbeat, everything changed: Jesus Christ was conceived and the silence of God ended with His Word-in-Flesh.

And in a moment, in a breath, in a heartbeat, everything could change again.

Will you be found waiting for Him?