Shirin McArthur

May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, so that you may have all endurance and patience. —Colossians 1:11

Dear Siblings in Christ,

Are you ready for Christmas? What about Advent? All around us, the pace of The Holidays threatens to overwhelm the intention of Advent, which is traditionally about waiting. Unless you include waiting in long retail lines, most of us tend to think about The Holidays as a time of busyness—filled with parties and gift-buying and travel plans—rather than the stillness that comes with waiting.

For what—or whom—are we waiting in Advent? The season is meant to encompass two things. First is the “endurance and patience” of awaiting the arrival of the baby Jesus. Second is looking forward to the adult Jesus coming again in “his glorious power.” Our perspectives, however, are colored by our distance from the events themselves.

When Mary was pregnant, only she and her family and friends were waiting—and she likely wasn’t sitting around while she waited. She had chores to do—though she might have wondered, as she chopped vegetables, whether her baby’s eyes would turn brown or stay blue. Joseph might have fashioned a cradle when work was slow at the carpenter’s shop. They had a Bethlehem trip to plan.

We, on the other hand, have the gift(?) of perspective. We have been hearing for years, perhaps for all our lives, about the birth of Jesus. We know “how it all goes down”—or at least we know the stories that have been handed down to us about how Jesus’s birth came about: full inn and manger cradle, awestruck shepherds, gifts from unexpected wise men. We wait, and expect, but it’s harder to imagine the endurance and patience of Mary and Joseph as they anticipated the unknown.

On the other hand, the early church thought Jesus was coming again very soon—with a triumphal, transform-the-world agenda—but now over two thousand years have passed. Here, we get closer to anticipating the unknown, because we truly know nothing about that second coming. Fortunately, we also have something to do while we wait. Jesus gave us a commission when he was here the first time: share his good news with all the world.

It seems to me that’s enough to keep us occupied while we wait.

Peace,

—Shirin

A version of this message first appeared on my blog on December 3, 2017.