We Wait...

   It is bitterly cold over much of the nation, and in my little piece of the world the wind chill this morning was -6 degrees.  Of course this pales in comparison to our good friends who are adjusting to Alaskan winters, but still, it’s cold outside.
    It wouldn’t be quite so bad if it weren’t for the wind, because that wind just stirs up the already cold air and blasts it against us.  The energy of the wind combines with the inert energy of the cold, and what hits is a pressure and temperature combination that at times seems to burrow deep below the surface and down to the bones.
    Though glad she did, I had to laugh at my six year old daughter this morning.  She looked like the kid in the movie, Christmas Story, she was so wrapped up.  She was protected.  She had a thermal shirt underneath a fleece sweater, then her bulky winter coat over that.  Then she’d found a fleece scarf (pink of course), gloves, and the gator which is intended to cover one’s neck, she’d instead placed over her head, so that it looked as if her eyes and forehead were peeking out from a smokestack on a steam liner.  To top it off, she pulled the hood of her coat over her head and trekked, or should I say, waddled out to the bus.
    I usually experience such a scene when the ground is covered in the white stuff, and whenever there is any snow, that’s exactly how she wants to be dressed AND out in it!  And yet, there is no snow.  There have been flurries, but none of the substance which brings such beauty and delight.  Just the grip of blustery winds which seem to sweep with it any of the warm that beams down from the sun above.
    As I think about it, this is not the way I usually think of the cold, nor do I want to think of the cold in this way.  Instead, the image that comes to mind on days such as this is looking out the window to see the ground and trees covered in beauty, while my family and I sit in front a roaring fire with hot chocolate in hand, simply sharing in the gifts of life.  But alas, this is not the reality of today.

    This Sunday’s Gospel reading is Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth [Matthew 1: 18-25], and it reveals that the birth of Jesus wasn’t the ideal situation either.  Mary and Joseph were engaged to be married, which in that day and age was might as well have been marriage, for if the woman was unfaithful, she was subject to stoning.  And yet, Mary showed up pregnant, and Joseph, well he wasn’t going to push the legal limits of the situation but was going to quietly divorce her.
    This was not the way it was supposed to be for Joseph, or for Mary for that matter!  All their dreams and hopes of their relationship would now be shattered, for this event changed everything for them.  It changed everything for the world.
    In Luke’s Gospel [Luke 1: 46-55], she sings a song which we call “The Magnificat,” and it is a song of deliverance from the injustices of the world.  It is a cry of joy from Mary that she would be the handmaiden of God, but it was also a cry for all who find themselves in places where reality is not what one expects or desires.  It’s just not there.
    And yet it is into just such days that Jesus enters.  He comes in those times and places where the world’s reality just doesn’t match out hopes or expectations.  He enters those situations where those who are wronged, lost, or forgotten, where the hopeless and helpless, are feeling the burden of life.  And they are waiting for a Messiah...for a Savior.
    We find ourselves heading toward the end of this season of Advent.  This is a season of anticipation of what’s to come.  It is a season of watching and waiting.  It is a season in which we focus ourselves on God and remind ourselves that the day IS coming when all will be as it should.  When the coldness will not just be coldness but will also be beautiful and blessed.  When those who are lost will be found.  When the injustices of the world shrink before the Just God who sends One to make all things right.
    In these days, we wait, and waiting is difficult sometimes.  And yet, the One on whom we wait is the One who brings all beauty and love to us.  He is the One who bring light, love, warmth, and hope.  He is the messiah, whose hope and desire is that we will receive all the things for which we hope and desire.  He comes for you, for me...and for the world.
                                                      
For what are you waiting as you prepare for Christ’s birth?  Why don’t you ask God to give you that as a gift this Christmas?