WAITING FOR GOD

            Waiting for God to come to us in spirit, as God’s greatest gift when we are prepared to receive Him, is so aptly and admiringly stated in Philip Brooks’ Christmas hymn:

How silently, how silently
The wondrous Gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of his heaven.
No ear may hear his coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him still,
The dear Christ enters in.

            To have faith in God, to make the waiting of Him to enter into our hearts is not merely to assert that God exists. The much more difficult thing is putting our trust in God and His ways as the basis for our individual and social living.

            As we wait for the Lord to answer our prayers, for Him to be made known to us, we must have the union of trusting confidence and courageous action with response to God’s leading. This is the Faith that makes the Wait so worthwhile.

                                                --Judson Joyce