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.

Lord, I Want to Love You Like My Cat Loves Me

“One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.”

               - Psalm 27:4

My cat loves me.

Actually, he’s not my cat. He is our daughter’s cat. But, alas, she has gone to the far ends of the earth (Montana) to study for her Master’s in Social Work, and she was unable to take the cat with her. So the cat – Ray – temporarily belongs to Carol and me.

But I’m the one that Ray loves.

I’m not bragging about it. It just happens that Ray chose me as the one he looks to for provision, and friendship, and comfort. 

He greets me when I wake up in the morning, quickly settling on my lap as I try to read my Bible and drink my coffee. 

When I take a nap on the couch, he tries to get as close to my face as he can.

Sometimes when I am getting ready for work, Ray follows me around the house; and if I stop in the middle of the room, he will reach up and ask me to hold him. 

It’s pretty cute, really. And endearing.

It makes me wonder, though: Do I look to God with the same passion and devotion that my cat has for me? Do I seek to rest in God’s presence with my whole being? Is it the longing of my heart to be held in the hands of the One who provides for me and cares for me eternally?

The psalmist – probably King David – only asks for one thing: “to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of [his] life.” Of all the things that David could’ve asked for – wealth, happiness, power… – he simply asked to dwell in God’s presence. 

Actually, that’s been the chief desire of the human heart since the third chapter of Genesis, when the first humans hid from God in shame. We’ve wanted nothing more than to be restored to fellowship with God. As Augustine said, “My heart was restless until it found its rest in thee, O God.”

And so nowadays when Ray crawls up and imposes himself onto my lap, it makes me say a quick prayer: “Lord, I want to love you with the same passion and devotion that Ray loves me.”

One thing I ask of the Lord, this one thing I seek…

What’s your one thing?