I. Advent’s Discipline: Waiting

Do you like to wait? I don’t.

Yet waiting in the discipline we practice during Advent. The church in its wisdom knows that it is precisely what we don’t like to do that we need to do. It knows that, if we impatiently rush to the manger, we won’t see God in the baby lying in it.

Waiting gives the Holy Spirit time to remove the darkness in us so we can see. Eight days after Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph took him to the temple for his dedication. When they arrived there was a man there named Simeon. He’d been waiting on God’s Messiah, who would bring salvation to Israel. While he waited, the Holy Spirit prepared him to recognize in the child God’s salvation for the whole world.

I wonder what went on within the soul of the father, while he waited. How ma…