Advent is our church season of waiting, waiting for God to break into our lives again. We spend these next four weeks anticipating Jesus’ birth and all that it means to wait and trust in God. One of my morning readings comes from Henri Nouwen, a Catholic priest, who taught and wrote in the 20th century about God’s self-revealing in Jesus. Below is part of his essay on waiting.
“I have found it very important in my own life to try to let go of my wishes and instead live in hope… and trust that my life is precious and meaningful in the eyes of God, something really new, something beyond my own expectations begins to happen in me…It is living with the conviction that God molds us in love, holds us in tenderness, and moves us away from the sources of our fear. Our spiritual life is a life in which we wait, actively present to the moment, expecting new things will happen to us, new things that are far beyond our own imagination…”
Advent, Christmas, and a New Year await us. Let’s move into this season of waiting and anticipation knowing that God loves us so much that God chose to take on human form in Jesus to share life with us, today and always.