Hurry up and wait

Advent.
For those who don’t go to church, or didn’t grow up in a church, or maybe don’t pay attention in church, advent marks the season (four weeks) before Christmas. The word derives from Latin's adventus, meaning “coming.” So, for Christians, it’s a time of expectant waiting for the birth of Jesus. He’s coming!

Growing up, advent meant church on the four Wednesday nights before Christmas. And usually we went early to eat dinner at church—whatever the youth group (which for many years I was apart of) was serving as a fundraiser.

And the sanctuary was always marked with a big Advent wreath containing three white candles (for weeks 1 through 3), one pink candle (for the 4th week), and one white candle for Christmas. I remember getting increasingly anxious as we lit more and more candles. Although normal children want the days to pass more quickly, I wanted the days to rewind. I didn’t want the season to end! Go back, go back, blow that candle out. One day closer to Christmas meant one day closer to it being done. I know lots of kids like those little calendars where you rip off the days one by one leading up to Christmas. I hate those things!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was just stranded in Chicago for 36 hours due to a snow storm. Two coworkers and me waited. And waited. And waited some more. We waited for the taxi to get to the airport. Then we waited for the shuttle to pick us up from the airport to take us to the hotel because our flight had been cancelled. Then we waited for the shuttle driver to get UN-lost to take us to our hotel. Then we waited for dinner. Then we waited for hours to board our flight. Then we waited on the tarmac to take off. Then we waited for luggage. Then I waited in more traffic to get home. Hurry up and wait is what we did. And at one point as we sat on dirty, ripped, black leather airport chairs listening to the loudspeaker announce over and over and over that the airport is a non-smoking facility (honestly, don’t we all know this by now? I mean it’s been years since you could smoke in the airport!), I told my fellow slouching coworkers, that our waiting was actually fitting...after all, it’s Advent! Lame, I know, but we all got a chuckle out of it, and my one coworker said, "You’re right! We’re waiting for Jesus Christ!" LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, CHICAGO’S MIDWAY IS A NON-SMOKING FACILITY...

But I have to tell you in all our waiting—so expectantly wanting to get home—we bonded. We told stories and jokes and most embarrassing moments. We laughed. We rolled our eyes at each other and made fun of each other. And shared about our families and past Christmases. We waited and waited some more. And we now share something.

This whole Planes, Trains and Automobiles experience reminded me how precious the waiting can be. Like so many little children who want Christmas to hurry up and come, we often want to be done with the waiting, and yet there’s so much there. So much we’d miss.

Waiting inherently means needing to pause, to stand or sit still. To hold up. And that really has not happened much for me this December. Advent is a time to prepare and celebrate the fact that Jesus came and he’s coming again, but I feel like I’ve spent more time preparing for my vacation.

So, being stuck in the windy city’s airport in December pretty much seemed like the worst thing ever at first, and yet, it finally put me in the Advent spirit. The spirit of waiting.

"It is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD."
Lamentations 3:26