Second Sunday in Advent- Like Watching Paint Dry

Some people hate waiting.
Anywhere.
Anytime.

They get in the line that ends up moving too slowly and they begin to get restless. If they are in the 10 items or less line they start counting the items in the carts ahead of them. Not that they will confront the person, but it does make them feel better about themselves.

We are all like kids at Christmas when it comes to waiting.

Imagine the first Christians who lived with the unfaltering certainty that Christ would return very, very, VERY soon. Excitement, hope, promise. And then some of the brothers and sisters started dying before he came back. Pretty soon many of them noticed that they were no longer young.

Where is he? What's taking him so long? Life has gone on too long since he said he would be back.

Some probably "fell away" from the faith as a result. Enough of this crap, they no doubt thought. It really was a hoax after all. Others developed all kinds of theologies (yes, plural) to explain it. We still haven't figured it out and we are still waiting.

Dull, isn't it. Kind of like waiting for paint to dry- while standing there watching it.

So go do something else.

Meditate on what is happening. Look inside your own soul and figure out why you are still restless. Glance at that drying paint and discover the changes in it as it dries. That's us- you and me and all of us humans seeking hope and direction. What are you grateful about today. Name three, four, five things. Then do it again tomorrow, but you can't name the same things. Find new ones. Look around your life and see something you didn't remember was there. Find some new things that your life has produced- or your family and friends have given you- or that God has placed in your presence.

Waiting is not a time of dull boring nothingness. That only comes when we stop looking around and within.

Once in a while I even find Jesus standing there and am surprised again that I hadn't even noticed.