Advent is a time of anticipation - just like little children can hardly wait for the celebrations of Christmas time, I wait each day with expectation for God to create in me new understanding of his incarnation. Emmanuel, God with Us.
Yesterday the table was set, candles lit and brunch prepared for six friends who once were my co-workers. The anticipation was satisfying, but better still, fulfilled when around the table we shared our hearts with one another. God was with us in our conversation.
Early this morning my heart was enriched with an amazing word picture as Isaiah 35 describes a barren desert being filled with God's glory, resulting in great rejoicing. Many years later an elderly, childless couple, Zachariah and Elizabeth were promised a child who would herald God's arrival, getting people ready for God to meet them, to walk with them, miraculous heal them, and set their lives on an amazing intimate journey with the incarnate Christ. Soon after this Mary had a miraculous encounter with Almighty God as her empty womb received God's glory in his incarnation and she began a time of waiting, a time to express her joy in anticipation of his birth.
God comes to us as we love and believe in him, pregnant with the Holy Spirit. As we wait we are enlarged - our hope augmented, our imagination widened, our understanding nourished by Christ in us, the hope of glory. Waiting time is not wasted time. God is at work within us.
"Satisfy us in the morning,
with your unfailing love,
that we may sing for joy
and be glad all our days."
Psalm 90:4
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