Advent Waiting

“My heart says of You, ‘Seek his face!’
Your face, Lord, I will seek.” (Psalm 27:8)

As a pastor, I always feel a tension with the world around me when it comes to observing Advent. Everyone is in such a rush to get to Christmas – as soon as Halloween was over (even before), stores were changing their decorations to reflect Christmas. And the Hallmark Channels have had non-stop Christmas movies since the middle of October.

“But what about Advent?”, I protest.

Christmas is about remembering – remembering that God assumed human flesh and dwelt among us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, to save us from our sin.

But Advent is about waiting:

• Waiting for Jesus to come again and usher in the Kingdom of Heaven once and for all.
• Waiting for the new heaven and the new earth foretold by the biblical writers, and promised by God.
• Waiting for that time to come when we will no longer see dimly, as a poor reflection in a mirror, but will see God face to face – and experience his grace and glory in all their fulness.

Advent waiting is not a tapping-our-feet kind of impatient waiting. Nor is it a looking-at-our-watch kind of waiting. No, Advent waiting is informed by a deep longing in our hearts, much like the kind of longing we encounter in the Psalms:

“My whole being thirsts for God, for the living God.When will I come and see God’s face?” (Psalm 42:2)

“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,and in his word I put my hope.My soul waits for the Lordmore than watchmen wait for the morning,more than watchmen wait for the morning.” (Psalm 130:5-6)

“My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’Your face, Lord, I will seek.” (Psalm 27:8)

How would you describe your Advent waiting? How deep is the longing in your heart?

Our cat (actually our daughter’s cat that we’re fostering while she’s in graduate school) loves to be with us. Only, he’s not content to be by our side or on our lap; he has to be in our face, literally. It gives a whole new meaning to “seek his face!”. Really, the way Ray persists in getting in our face is endearing – and it shows me something of the kind of persistence I should have in my heart as I seek God.

Advent waiting is active. It is living today as if the promised new heaven and new earth is already a done deal; and, in fact, we should assume that it is a done deal, because it is God’s promise to us. And God is faithful. Always.

So live today as if the tomorrow for which we hope has already come. Live, as the apostle Peter urges, “holy and godly lives as you wait eagerly for the day of God to come.” (2 Peter 3:11-12)

You see, the beauty of our waiting is this: as we await the day when we will see God face to face, God gives us glimpses of his grace and glory today.

“Your face, Lord, I will seek.”

Look for the Lord. You will find him.

Wait for the Lord. He will come.