Advent Journey - 10th December

Read: Lamentations 3 vs 19-24

I like porridge. Every morning when I get up I put my porridge in the microwave and set the timer to 1 min 50 sec. That’s not a long time, its not a long wait. But sometimes I find myself pacing around waiting for the ‘ping’ or staring at the timer willing it to reach zero. The faster things get the harder we find it to wait.

The Bible tells the story of God’s great rescue plan, His ‘making all things new’ that literally runs from the beginning of the Bible through to the end. When we read the Bible we discover that God’s plan unfolds purposefully, with a rock solid certainty, but God is not in a hurry. 

Today our reading is taken from the book of Lamentations. You can’t judge a book by its cover but the title of the Old Testament book tells us a good bit about what we need to know about it. This book is a ‘lament’ and it was written as a reflection upon the ‘exile’ when God’s city (Jerusalem) was destroyed and His people were carried far away into Babylon. This was a very hopeless time. A terrible time. Where is God in the midst of all this? What is God doing? How can you trust a God who you can’t see and who seems to be terribly absent?

Lamentations doesn’t sort the people’s problems out (and the problems were big and real), lamentations laments, but it does something else. In Lamentations 3:24, following a declaration of God’s ‘faithfulness’ the Lamenter writes:

‘The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’ 

All through the Bible God’s people, at their best, are a waiting people. In Luke’s Gospel the story is told of an elderly couple who greeted the infant Jesus in the Temple. Listen to how one of these (Simeon) is described: ‘He was waiting …’

The Old Testament waits for Christmas. When Jesus is born the waiting is over. Yet another waiting begins, for that Day when history will reach its end and Jesus will return. For now we wait, because God is always faithful, and always worth waiting for.

Prayer: Father please help me to wait for you, quietly, patiently, with faith and trust. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.