Waiting

"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the hearts of children to their parents, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."
-Malachi 4:5-6, the last two verses of the Old Testament.

"And for four hundred years - four hundred years - the people of God waited."

This was how we began our worship service this morning, on the first day of Advent. Pastor Dan let us sit in silence for quite a long time after his opening lines. The first feeling I experienced was a twinge of pain. I closed my eyes and pictured generation after generation waiting and wondering when the Messiah would arrive. I cannot even begin to fathom what it must have been like to wait and wonder year after year. Then I began to think about the people who were alive and going about their daily routines the year that Christ was born. They had no idea what that year was going to bring, that the Messiah was going to be born during their lifetime!

And now, in this season of Advent, we are waiting. Not only are we waiting and preparing to celebrate Christ's birth, but we are waiting for Christ to return. In many ways, we are like the Jews who waited four hundred years for the Messiah to be born.

I think that this year, I am going to try to be very intentional about really experiencing this season of Advent.

Waiting.
Longing.
Abiding.
Expecting.
Hungering.
Yearning.
Desiring.

Praying.

Christ is coming.
Christ will come again.
Alleluia!