Waiting on Hope

Waiting is hard! That is one universal truth people from all walks of life can agree on. We spend much of our lives agonizing over waiting. Waiting on a promotion that will better support our growing family. Waiting to hold a long desired baby in our arms. Waiting on a test result to find out if the treatments have worked against a devastating disease. Waiting at the airport for a dearly missed loved one. The irony of this natural waiting we all experience is that we live in a fast-paced, fast food, fast-talk world. We now live in a society where one does not have to wait for a letter to arrive by post to update us on a loved one deployed oceans away we can call them or facetime and talk to them instantly. We do not have to spend days and hours prepping for a holiday meal; we can place an order at a restaurant or grocery store ahead of time and have dinner and all the trimmings delivered to our house. We don’t even have to wait in line for the coffee we were too busy to make at home. We can order our 3 pump, venti, vanilla latte with an extra shot of espresso from our phone on the drive there, skip the line, skip the small talk, pick up our coffee and go about our day without any wait.

Maybe you have grown up celebrating Advent. Maybe you had a family Advent calendar or tradition you remember as a child. I did not grow up celebrating Christ’s birth with Advent. Having a Christmas Eve birthday, I grew up sharing my red velvet birthday cake with Jesus every year. That’s how we celebrated Jesus at Christmas, we sang happy birthday to Jesus and every Christmas morning, before we opened a single present, we sat down with our homemade sausage balls and apple cinnamon tea and listened as our dad read the Christmas story out of Luke 2:1-20.

As an adult with children of my own, I was struck by the fact that Christmas is not about the perfectly decorated trees, and neatly wrapped packages under the tree. I did not want my girls spending hours writing their laundry list of toys and things they wanted. I did not want to drive my family crazy by stressing out over having special meals and forced traditions. I wanted my girls to grow up understanding we do not have Christmas so we can see our 2nd and 3rd cousins one time a year or so we can greedily open gift after gift. We have Christmas because the all powerful creator God loved us so much that He decided to send His one and only Son to earth in the form of an innocent baby. We have Christmas because God sent this perfect infant to live among us, to show God to the world, and ultimately to die an agonizing death on a cross meant for a murderer, only to rise again 3 days later so that we sinful and lost humans could one day live with Him in Heaven. PRAISE GOD! That is something to celebrate! That is something worth anticipating and waiting for.

My husband comes from a Catholic family and in our early years of dating, I heard several references to Advent for the first time, such as Advent calendars and Advent wreaths. At first glance, I thought it was a Catholic tradition to countdown to Christmas. However, as I became more aware of the word “advent”, I started noticing Protestant Advent devotionals and Advent scripture reading plans. I realized it was not just a tradition for Catholics but an observance for all believers. I discovered a beautiful reminder that was far deeper than a countdown to opening presents. The word Advent comes from the Latin word adventus which means “coming”. Adventus is a translation of the Greek word parousia meaning “second coming” as used in Matthew 24:27, “For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” The motivation behind Advent is preparing our hearts to celebrate the first Advent of our Savior in the fully human form of a baby and preparing our hearts in anticipation of the return of Christ our Lord and King in the second Advent.

Our focus in this season is crucial. The world is sending constant signals to distract us from the true reason for Christmas. The ads and decorations start going up as early as Halloween in some stores. Our eyes are pulled from the baby Jesus by early black Friday deals and secret cyber-Monday specials. Our attention is turned away from anticipating the second Advent of our Savior by thoughts and plans of getting together with in-laws and extended family and friends. We are easily distracted by long to-do lists and dozens upon dozens of “holiday” cards (because even saying “Merry Christmas” has become offensive during the CHRISTmas season now but that’s another topic for another time).

This devotional is organized to follow the order of the candles in an Advent wreath. If you have never seen an Advent wreath, it has 5 candles. Four candles sit around the outside and 1 candle sits in the center. The 4 candles on the outside represent hope, preparation (some traditions say peace), joy and love. The candle in the center represents Christ. Tradition states you light one of the outside candles each Sunday before Christmas starting 4 Sundays before Christmas. The first Sunday you light the hope candle; the second Sunday you relight the hope candle and then light the preparation candle and so on. Then on Christmas day, you relight all 4 candles, and at last, you light the Christ candle in the center. With that in mind, we will spend 5 days reflecting on each candle: hope, preparation, joy, love, and Christ.