“For [all] creation waits in eager longing…” Romans 8:19
Advent means “coming.” We wait for the advent of many things. We wait for the advent of world peace, we wait to be reconciled with that relative we have not spoken to in so long, we wait for our healing to come, we wait for an end to violence on our streets, we wait through the loneliness of lengthening winter hours... we wait to feel loved, to be better, to encounter the Divine; for freedom from fear, for acceptance; to be heard, to feel safe, to have enough. We wait.
It is part of our human condition: people from all walks of life wait for - long for - healing, peace, safety, love. This waiting necessitates some sense of hope; for Christians this hope is rooted in the promised return of Christ and the redemption of the world. But that comes a little later. For now, at the onset of this season, when we reflect on what is coming/what is not yet here, let us pause at the waiting, and wonder together: what does our waiting have to teach? What may we glean from the practice of waiting?
As we listen to this heartsong of hope from an Orthodox Jewish man, what does it means to wait together with all creation? For what are we waiting?
For what are you waiting this Advent season?
May we wait in the darkness of these shortening days, dreaming together of the coming light.
- Lindsey
I'm waiting for the voice of the people in the U.S. to coalesce around an agenda that puts the MOST vulnerable first. The 99% is a good idea, but I'm more concerned about the bottom 25% of that 99, frankly. Why haven't we been "Occupying Wall Street" in the sense of showing our outrage at the treatment of the most vulnerable among us since the mid-90's or even earlier?
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