On Waiting

Advent has crept upon us in our waiting for all this to end, in our disappointment that things are looking precarious again, in our hopes for a Christmas less weird than last year - the build up less of a downhill slope to lockdown. When this all began, the thought of it all lasting to one Christmas, never mind two, was far beyond our comprehension, yet here we are, once again, watching the news for signs of what will come next. 

The waiting has been far too long. 

It's like advent has never gone away. Advent means coming. Better ahead is coming. Better is on its way. Better is almost in sight. Better is perhaps, continually, just beyond our grasp.  

Advent is a time of preparation, a time of anticipation, a time of hopefulness. 

But, it seems like the end of this long advent keeps being moved. 

How do we find hope when the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel keeps dimming? 

Hope is right here. 

There is hope in the fact that the light is there, that there is a promised end to all of this, and it will one day come, even if it seems further away right now.

There is hope in the advances that are being made in treating and understanding the virus, anticipating and watching its next move, scientists continue to work to find a way through.

There is hope in the fact that pandemics have ended before, and the viruses have become less dangerous than they were. 

There is hope in the way that so many of us are looking out for one another as we test and step cautiously, as we keep an eye out for our neighbours and family and friends and as we continue to remember what we learnt about community in the first waves of a virus that we don't understand.

And there is hope, because whilst advent is about waiting, THE advent that we wait within has a light at the end where all sickness will be no more..... because advent is not just a count down to Christmas, but is a count up to when Jesus comes again, and all this that we worry about, all the pain and suffering we fear, it will end, and the future ahead will be glorious. 

In the meanwhile, as we wait, let us not just sit in the dark, but anticipate the light ahead by bringing some of that light wherever we are. In love and in healing, in patient waiting and hope, in caring for one another and sharing what we have. The way things are are not the way things have to be forever.... or even the way things have to be right now. 

"The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn't put it out" John 1:5 (MSG)

(image from rawpixel.com)