This week began Advent --- The anticipatory waiting for the birth of the Messiah. Waiting is very difficult in our culture. We have E-Z Pass toll booths that you don't even need to slow down for on the highways, extra windows at the fast food drive thru to get you on your way faster, self check-out lines at the grocery store (as if we can do it better and faster), "Jiffy" Lube, "Quik" fill, online shopping, faster internet, 7-minute abs workout (now condensed to 2-minute abs), my personal favorite from Pensacola, FL...the drive-thru funeral home (pictured above), etc, etc, etc. Point is, our culture hates to wait!
I wish our churches would put more value into Advent as we eagerly wait and look forward to the day of Christ's birth. It is a much needed slow-motion in a fast-forward culture! Nobody understood this better than 2 people in the Christmas story --- Simon and Anna (Luke 2:21-40). Both were very old and had waited many years for the day that Messiah would be born. As Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple, Simon immediate grabbed Him and began praising God (vs. 28-32). This also shows amazing patience in Mary and Joseph...after all, what would you do if some guy grabbed your newborn and starting swinging him around?
So this Advent season, don't be afraid to slow down and wait. As the culture wants us to be busier than ever over the next 20+ days, keep in mind the charge of the Psalmist to wait for the Lord above all else (Pslam 27:14). Here at the seminary, many of our foreign students laugh at our Nativity Sets...little baby Jesus is in the manger even though it isn't Christmas and He "hasn't been born yet". One of their many cool traditions is to set up the Nativity, and keep baby Jesus out until Christmas morning --- and that is something they wait for in anticipation every year. Shouldn't we do the same?
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