WAITING—A TIME OF EXPECTANCY

            “The hardest part is the waiting,” said a friend awaiting results of medical tests. For the outcome of the tests would have a great deal to do with the path that the future would take. Would their future involve radiation or chemotherapy treatments with an uncertain outcome? Or would their future be assured by the words, “The tests have come back negative for cancer.”

            Sometimes a period of waiting can bring an enforced slowing down, a pause in a fast-paced life, a time to more fully appreciate the blessings of the present moment. More than ever we realize that we can do very little to change the events of yester-day; no more than we can know with certainty what tomorrow holds.

            Can it be that God paces our lives with “timeouts,” or waiting periods, so that we can step back and evaluate what the really important things are? Could these be times when God can more easily get our attention, when we are more receptive to his reaching out to us with his grace and love, to guide, to support, to answer our every need?

           Advent, by its very meaning, is a time of waiting, of expectancy. May this blessed season of Advent, when we are reminded of the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ, bring to each of us joy and hope and faith renewed.

Prayer
            God, at this very special time of year as we await and prepare for the holy season, may love be reborn in us. With great joy, may we return to the spirit of Christ that resides in our hearts, a spirit of giving and receiving from a heart of love, a spirit of peace. Amen. 

                                                --Eleanor Wing