The church year · Advent · The four Sundays before Christmas
This isn’t how you thought it would go. Advent was made for that.
Advent is the season of waiting for God to come. The people of God waited centuries in the dark, and the light came anyway (Isa 9:2).
Maybe you’re waiting on a diagnosis, a phone call, a prodigal, a door that won’t open. The plan you had for this year didn’t survive the year. You light the first candle and it feels small against all that dark. You’re in good company. Advent is for people still waiting.
Fellow travelers
We aren’t the first to walk this way.
- Zechariah and Elizabeth prayed for a child for decades and grew old with the answer still unseen. Then God came near in their old age (Luke 1:5–25).
- Mary had a life planned and an engagement under way. She said, “May your word to me be fulfilled,” and let the plan go (Luke 1:38).
- Joseph had already decided how to handle things quietly. God met him in a dream and gave him a different road (Matt 1:18–25).
- Simeon spent his life waiting for “the consolation of Israel.” He got to hold him (Luke 2:25–32).
The one you’re waiting for is already on his way to you.
Where the Shepherd meets us
The destination of every season is the same: God himself.
- God’s first word to his waiting people was tender: “Comfort, comfort my people” (Isa 40:1).
- He doesn’t come as a manager checking progress. “He tends his flock like a shepherd” and carries the lambs close to his heart (Isa 40:11).
- Zechariah sang that “the rising sun will come to us from heaven” to shine on those sitting in darkness (Luke 1:78–79).
- So we wait like watchmen for the morning, sure that it comes (Ps 130:5–6). Waiting with God is a different thing than waiting alone.
Light a candle each evening this week and tell God one thing you’re still waiting for. Then sit quietly for a minute and let him wait with you.
Keep walking
- Us with God and Waiting
- Us with God and Disappointment
- Christmas
- The Calendarthe whole year at a glance