Waiting with.

Advent week one. In the practicing of paying attention to the seasons of a Christ focussed year, we have arrived in the season of Advent. A season where we are invited to intentional preparation and waiting as we remember the birth of Jesus. Prepare? I take stock of my own relating with the Trinity. Waiting? Wait with Jesus.

You don't have to do this. No one is forcing you. The idea of a Christian year might seem kind of forced or hokey in some way for you. Maybe just unfamiliar. That's ok. Perhaps though, something stirs in you to hope for more than just get up, grind it out, go to bed, repeat. "Ok, so I'll humor you and take a minute and think about this whole Christian year thing and Advent." And right out of the chute we're..... waiting. Waiting? "Come on man, let's do something. I've got to do something for this to be worth my while". I get it. I am actually struggling with this same thought as I write this morning. I feel this pull to write something fancy, something you might like. But there is more of a pull within me to wait with the Lord and to call us to consider that together.

There is a difference between "waiting on" and "waiting with". God used prophets to speak of things that would happen before they actually took place. God used the prophet Isaiah to say these words. "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." These are really amazing words. Some of the people have heard about a coming Messiah, but how's it going to happen? Who is it going to be? How will we know? And after Isaiah says it, what does he do then? Besides maybe repeating it, for the most part, he and they are waiting. Yes, they are living their daily lives, perhaps doing the get up/grind it out/go to bed thing, but in regards to these specific, pointing words from God through Isaiah, they are now waiting ON Jesus because He has not yet come. Seven hundred years between Isaiah's words and the arrival of Jesus the Messiah through birth into our world. That is a long waiting "on".

He has come. The Messiah was born. His name is Jesus. Pay attention to this subtle difference. Isaiah and those who heard his pointing words waited on Jesus. Today you and I, if we are joined to Jesus, are waiting with Jesus. As we remember the birth of Christ in this Advent season, we do so with awareness that He has already come in birth and we now watch and wait for Him to come again to make all things new. Jesus had not yet come for the people Isaiah was speaking to, nor us. They could only really wait on Jesus. Those who are reading these words today who are in Christ, He is now with you, having birthed His life in you. And in a wild reality, we and Jesus are waiting together for the Father's releasing of the second Advent, the second coming of His Son. Soak in that. Don't rush away from that WITH.

When we are waiting "on" something it kind of gives us something to "do". When we are waiting "with" someone, the "do" starts to fade in importance and the WITH takes more of a place of prominence. There is this urge in us humans to need to be productive. God Himself infused this "tending" into our roles as humans. And He also calls us to be still. And because He lives in us, that being still is with Him.

In this Advent, wait with Him. Be with Him. Not for productivity. Not even spiritual productivity. Just be with Him.

Wait with Jesus.

This is far more profound than I could ever convey in these words.

There's more.