Revel in the wait; don’t wish it away.

My life in the past several years has been one long season of waiting. I waited to leave my job. Then I left. I waited to get to the mission field. Then I was there. I waited some more while in language school. Then I spoke Spanish. I waited to love my missionary life. Then I did. I waited to get direction for the next part of our journey. Then I received it. I waited to go stateside. I waited to move to our new home. I waited, I waited, I waited. . . even now I wait.

It seems as if much of life is a waiting period. For those of us who’ve done our not-so-fair share of waiting, we can easily get bogged down in discontentment and forget the joy of what is to come. Advent is known as a season of waiting. However, the word means “the arrival” or “the coming.” Often though, it feels like a season of restless wasting.

During the Advent season, I am content with the waiting process (at least now that I’m an adult). I love the holiday traditions our family enjoys. I revel in quiet mornings of cookie making or chatter-filled evenings decorating the Christmas tree or laughing through our favorite Christmas movies. The waiting is fun because I know what is coming. I’m assured of the promise of Christ’s arrival. And really isn’t that the point.

Why is it I cannot see that I should do the same during any other waiting period of my life? Why can’t I find the contentment in the moment? Why can’t I wait joyfully just in the thought that it will come just as God promised? Why not wait with anticipation not irritation.

This year while we hope expectantly for celebration of the birth of Christ, let us celebrate the wait by enjoying the day and the people around us, by drinking in the contentment of now, by meshing moments into memories weighing them down against the pull of time.

God promised and Christ came. Our waiting is not in vain. Revel in the wait; don’t wish it away.