In terms of popularity, Christmas is clearly the king of the holidays. The top of the food chain. The big enchilada. Insert your favorite superlative here. It’s hard to compete with special songs, lights, decorations, trees in your house, and presents. Everyone loves to be given a gift. Not everyone loves to wait until December 25th to receive a gift. I would ask for a show of hands for those those who can’t wait until Christmas morning and always get your presents early — or even worse, unwrap them and rewrap them — but there’s no need, we already know who you are. Truth is, none of us really LIKE to wait. We may HAVE to wait or be WILLING to wait, but I dare say none of us like to wait. We may not like to wait but we NEED to learn to wait, precisely because sometimes we have to wait.
Ours is an age of instant gratification, and while that can be really wonderful in some cases — like finding a bathroom when you really need one or a parking spot when you’re in a hurry — it also comes at a cost. If we can be honest with ourselves, we have to admit that the anticipation is what makes the realization so great. Sometimes the anticipation is better. Look at it this way, if you are really wanting to eat some dish or dessert that someone only makes once a year, say at Christmas, once you eat it, it’s over. That joy may last a few minutes while you are eating it and then the plate is empty and give it a few more hours and your belly will be empty again too. Now think about the days, weeks, perhaps months you spent looking forward to, getting excited about when you finally get to sit down to that delicious whatever it is. The actual enjoying of it is quite fleeting, but the buildup, the anticipation, which is its own kind of joy if you learn to love it, can last a long, long time. When we can get whatever we want, whenever we want, for as long as we want, we lose the blessing of anticipation.
Fortunately for us, there is a holiday, or better yet, a holiday season that is designed to teach us to learn to appreciate waiting, or at least learn how to wait, even if we don’t enjoy it. I’ve written before about Advent, very recently in fact, but I love it so much that I just can’t get enough of it this time of year. Probably because you have to wait for it for eleven months.
For those who celebrate Advent, the season is all about identifying with our ancestors who waited for millennia, often times in darkness, sadness, suffering, fear, and loss, for God to come a bring help, hope, happiness, deliverance. For thousands of years their cry was “How long?” Their waiting wasn’t about anticipation but endurance. They waited and waited and cried and prayed and through it all continued to trust God. To say the payoff was worth the wait is an understatement. All they wanted was relief from their sufferings, but what they got was Jesus. When the waiting was over they were left with so much more than they ever imagined. Early on, very few people realized what had come with the arrival of this little baby — His parents, a couple of cousins, a few shepherds and magi — but just wait until He grows up. Everyone will know.
This story and this season has really taken up a lot of space in my mind lately. We too are waiting with an anticipation that cannot be contained. We too are asking, “How long, O Lord?” In Tennessee, Magnolia’s bloom in the Spring, but since they are an evergreen, they are popular centerpieces for holiday tables. The centerpiece of our season is waiting fo our little Magnolia Mae to bloom. We thought she would be here by now, maybe even home enjoying the bedroom that mom and dad, grandparents, friends, aunts, uncles and cousins have spent months preparing just for her. Her mama spent the last three days in the hospital letting the doctors and nurses put her through quite a bit of discomfort and outright pain, in an effort to induce the arrival of this little girl, to no avail. All the family gathered at the hospital waiting to erupt with celebration, somberly dispersed and went back to our normal routines. Everyone is disappointed and a little sad, so we go back to waiting and anticipating, and that’s ok. When the fulness of time was come God sent forth His Son, and when His time has come He will send us our little Magnolia Mae. Until then, we will shed a few tears, wait and pray and continue to trust God.
Right now Maggie is somewhat suspended between two worlds. She is very much real and alive, but she’s not yet here with us face to face, so a part of her remains in the presence of her Creator too. Perhaps He is already using her to bless us and teach us, even before she is fully with us. Maybe this is her way of reminding us that so many of the things we focus on, while blessings, aren’t ultimately that important. A baby can lay in a manger just fine, the important thing is we make room in our hearts and lives to love this new little life that God is giving us. Driving home from the hospital last night I couldn’t help but be reminded, before you get to Christmas you have to get through Advent. You have to learn to wait, anticipate, and through it all, trust God to give good gifts when the time is right.
Later in his life, I bet the Innkeeper wished he'd made more room than he thought he had for Jesus. Me too, and little Magnolia’s delayed arrival is a good reminder that there is no better way to spend the time while we are waiting than to create more room in my heart for HIm. Out of the mouths of babes…
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