Waiting & Watching with Expectation
I don’t know about you, but I have mixed feelings about Christmas. I love the weeks before because they’re filled with hope, excitement and anticipation. I just can’t wait for Christmas to get here! But at the same time, I kinda don’t want Christmas to actually arrive because once it’s here, it leaves. And then it’s like someone knocked the wind out of my sails. Am I the only one who feels like this?
*Sigh* Christmas is complicated.
And Advent sort of is, too.
Advent involves both looking back and looking forward. It acknowledges the already and the not yet. And Advent includes grieving the dark and celebrating the light. In fact, I’ve only recently realized that, in order to properly understand and celebrate Advent, we must start in the dark.
Only when we first understand darkness can we truly look forward to the coming of the real light. (You can read more about that HERE.)
Dietrich Bonhoeffer says it this way:
“The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come.”
Much of Advent is about looking forward to the coming of something greater. And we can look forward with complete confidence because the God who will deliver in the future is the same God who has already delivered in the past.
Christmas - the birth of Jesus - is the ultimate confirmation of God’s faithfulness. And the ultimate fulfillment of that same faithfulness is still to come. So looking back enables us to look forward with certain anticipation and sure expectation.
And though waiting can be tough, expectation can be exciting! And motivating! And energizing!
And tiring.
It can be hard to live in a prolonged season of endless expectation. Over time, our expectation inevitably turns to exhaustion, and we stop watching and waiting. This must have happened to the Israelites who were waiting for the coming Messiah. After a few hundred years of complete silence from Heaven, God’s people stopped waiting and watching. They quit expecting Him to come. And when he did, they missed it.
In fact, only a select few noticed the humble birth of the infant messiah: a teenage mother and her husband, some shepherds, and some studious star-gazers from the East.
Not much is known about the magi or wise men other than the fact that they brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. (3 gifts - that’s why many think there were 3 wise men.) Historians and commentators generally believe these academic men came from Persia (or the surrounding area) and were astrologers (or studiers of the stars). When they saw the evidence of the strange new star in the sky, they knew something big was coming. In fact, they were so confident of a miraculous event that they packed up, followed the star, and arrived in Jerusalem prepared to witness something or worship someone important.
These men had the privilege of meeting God as a baby simply because they were waiting, watching, and expecting. They were ready. The ironic thing is that every Israelite who knew the Old Testament should have been waiting and watching for a coming Messiah, too. But most missed it.
In the gospels, Jesus warns his disciples to wait and watch diligently – to not lose heart or fall asleep. Jesus also reminds his disciples, and us, that God is always at work. Even when we don’t see it, God is constantly working around us. He’s on the move! But sometimes it doesn’t seem that way.
Sometimes it’s hard to see evidence of God’s hand at work, and maybe it’s because we expect so little of Him. Maybe if we reminded our hearts more often of His limitless power and constant presence, we would more easily notice the evidence of His work.
One of my favorite Psalms to pray is a prayer of David’s. It says:
In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice. In the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. (Psalm 5:3)
Did you get that? David not only prays, but he then WAITS IN EXPECTATION. David believes God will answer. He EXPECTS God to answer. So he waits and watches for God to move. Why don’t we do the same?
Maybe the reason we don’t constantly, actively wait and watch for God to move is because we don’t really expect Him to.
Maybe there’s a direct link between how well we know Jesus and what we expect of Him. The less we know Him, the less we expect. The more we know Him, the more we expect of Him. In fact, the better we know Him, the more we expect to have our expectations absolutely blown out of the water!
The wise men noticed the star, followed it, and found God at work, all because they were EXPECTING a miracle. With everything in them, they believed that whatever heavenly being controlled the sky spoke to man through the stars. And they were certain the sudden, unexplained appearance of this new star meant the Divine had big things in store. These men were waiting and watching for something miraculous.
And today, that same sense of excited anticipation and hopeful expectation is why we decorate for Christmas earlier and earlier every year. We love Christmas Day, but the weeks leading up to it are just as important. Why? Because it brings us warmth, joy, and fulfillment to look forward to something we KNOW is coming. To anticipate something amazing and good and life-changing. To expect something that is certain and strong and steady. And then to have our expectations met and even exceeded! That’s what Christmas is all about.
And Advent, too! The looking back on Christmas each year enables us to look forward to Jesus coming again.
And He IS coming.
Are you waiting and watching in expectation?
