Are you in a season of waiting this Advent? Perhaps you are waiting for a diagnosis, for a positive pregnancy test, for depression to lift, or simply for God to show up. Are you waiting for Immanuel, God with us? Me too.
I am not a stranger to the art of waiting. I recall an Advent 14 years ago when I was waiting for motherhood. My husband and I intimately knew the pain of loss, and with loss, came deep longing. I yearned for God to fill this longing with a living, healthy baby. I felt the pain of waiting. I cried out with the prophet Jeremiah, “He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust. I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is” (Lam. 3:16-17). Waiting was hard. I longed for Immanuel, God with us.
Like that Advent of 14 years ago, I again find myself waiting on God. This time, I wait for health. I am crying out to Him for healing, for wholeness, for answers. I am met with silence. I am waiting. But like Advents past, I find my solace in Scripture. “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Is. 40:29-31). How I long for this weariness to end. I long for Immanuel, God with us.
Are you in a season of waiting this Advent? Me too. Waiting for motherhood lasted several years. I do not know how long I will wait for health. Let us wait together, trusting in God’s promises, for we know that God’s promises never fail. “Praise be to the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave…” (1 Kings 8:56). Not one of God’s promises has ever failed. Though, at times, we feel our teeth being broken with gravel and our bodies growing weak and weary, we remember God’s promise, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). His power is made perfect in our weakness, just as it was on that first Advent more than 2,000 years ago. A helpless baby, Savior of the world, power made perfect in weakness. So we wait, together, knowing God is with us.
