Advent marks a time of waiting, joyfully looking forward to a much-anticipated birth. So often we see waiting as a time of frustration, but imagining good things to come can hold as much pleasure as the things themselves.
When has a time of waiting been a gift?
Many families that celebrate Christmas welcome in the season with an Advent calendar that has a little window that opens on a special picture for each night of the Advent season, or which harbors a small treat to be discovered each day.
How might it change your experience of this season if you looked at each day with the expectation that it was holding some little hidden treat for you?
Advent begins today—a time of waiting with joyful anticipation. Which is not how we usually think of waiting. More often we regard waiting as tedious or annoying or an interruption to our carefully planned life. But it doesn’t work to hurry the growth of a plant or the birth of a child—some things only come when the time is right, and one might as well celebrate the time that leads to fulfillment.
What do you wait for with joy in your heart?
