Waiting is the Hardest Part

Via Flickr, Public Domain. Text added by author

It’s the second week of Advent but you wouldn’t know it looking around town. Everywhere I turn, I’m bombarded by Christmas decorations, movies, TV specials, and marketing for the “perfect” Christmas gift. Our fast-forward lives have somehow skipped past the waiting part of Advent.   

Our fast-forward lives have skipped the waiting part of #Advent. By @TheLauraBNelsonClick To Tweet

But, isn’t that the point of Advent? To wait for our Savior? To long for Him? How can we focus on longing and desire for our Messiah when we’re already celebrating His birth?

Don’t get me wrong. I love all of the movies, decorations, songs, and special events that fill our lives leading up to Christmas. I just wish we could postpone it a bit so that we’re not sick of it by the time Christmas is actually here.

The thing is, we’re only waiting for four short weeks leading up to Christmas. But God’s Chosen People had to wait hundreds of years for their Messiah. Talk about longing and desire!  

Waiting isn’t a bad thing really. Think about the things in your life that you didn’t get right away; the things you had to wait for. When you finally did get what you had been waiting for, how did you feel? Were you annoyed that you had to wait so long? OR, were you filled with joy at finally getting what you had wanted for so long?  

That waiting, longing, and desire are what helps us to appreciate the gift we receive. Just in a similar way that you might have waited with longing to find your spouse. There was probably pain in the waiting as well as loneliness but when you finally received the gift of your spouse, your joy was all the greater.

So, yes. According to Tom Petty and my children, waiting is the hardest part. But, it’s also what makes the gift so sweet.

Read more articles in our 2016 Advent Guide.

Photo copyright Christine Marciniak. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

Copyright 2016 Laura Nelson

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