Anticipating the Arrival of the Hope of the World...

We are about to enter into the second week of advent, a season of longing and anticipation for Jesus’ arrival. The frenzied pace of our culture and the commercialization of the Christmas season have me realizing that there are very few things that we have to wait for. Our sense of anticipation and longing has been dulled or reduced to matters of time. How long will this take? Or, how long before I get what I want?

The disciplines of waiting, longing, yearning and anticipating have been replaced with irritation or boredom if waiting takes longer than we expect. The season of advent is an annual rhythm that challenges us to slow our pace and to restore our ability to desire and yearn and ache for God to do something in a lost and broken world. What we wait for, the solution we so desperately crave, comes of course in the gift that is Jesus Christ.

This week, allow yourself to freshly anticipate, desire, yearn for, wish and plead for the arrival of the hope of the world that is Jesus Christ, Immanuel, God with us.

Here’s a prayer I wrote that you might want to pray for the next few days.

Gracious, patient God. Let this be a season of active waiting with my whole being, not given too quickly to the distracting lights, sounds and commotion of what Christmas has become. I ask for the grace to fully immerse myself in the anticipation of Jesus' arrival into this world and into my life.  Amen.

Blessings,
Pastor Kevin