Pause for thought: Our Faith is about Waiting

This year, I bought my dog an advent calendar. Each day we open a door for a tasty doggy treat and every day she wants to eat the entire contents of the calendar, but I tell her she needs to “wait”. We all know Advent is a time of waiting, a time of waiting for God, in the form of a baby, to enter the world. The prophet Isaiah promises for those in anguish a child who shall be the great light of the world (Isaiah 9:1, 2, 6), an answer to the lamenting Psalmist who wails “I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God” (Psalm 69:3). And eventually, for Mary, the chosen one of God, “the time came for her to deliver the child” (Luke 2:6). While Jesus’ birth fulfilled the expectations and promises of the Jewish Scriptures, the time of waiting was not yet over. The Prophetess Anna had been waiting in the temple, and with the arrival of Jesus, she knew that “redemption” was nearby, but not yet completed (Luke 2:2:36-38). During Jesus’ ministry, according to the Johannine Evangelist, it is emphasised that Jesus’ hour had not yet come (John 2:4; 7:30; 8:20). In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus encourages his disciples to stay awake and wait until the hour arrived (Mark 14:32-42; Matthew 26:36-46; Luke 22:39-46), and after his death, Jesus left those who mourned him waiting for three days until he rose from the dead. At this point the redemption of the world was made clear, through his death and resurrection, sins were forgiven, and eternal life was made possible. Yet, this was to the end of the waiting. As Christians we are still waiting for the second coming of Jesus. In the book of Revelation, Jesus promises John, “I am coming soon” (Revelation 22:20). This advent season we wait for the arrival of the baby in the manger, but we also wait in the sure and certain hope of the second arrival of Jesus, the time when we will dwell eternally with our Lord.

Dr Elizabeth Corsar