Hopeful Anticipation
There are so many things to look forward to as Christmas and Advent approach. Many of us will wait excitedly at the front door for distant family to arrive. Some will find themselves entranced with the smell of food and desserts that show up only at the holidays. Others can barely wait for the songs of Christmas to begin as soon as Halloween is over. And most children have already written and are waiting to mail their list to Santa, hoping to receive most, if not all, their presents on Christmas Day.
Yet, as Christians, we see Advent as more than music, food, and presents. We see this as the season of hopeful anticipation. It is the opportunity to rejoice and celebrate the coming of Christ in the form of a child into our world. It is the quiet confidence that God has come and will come again. It is the belief that the child who transformed the world will transform our lives. Thus, we show up to services each week believing that God will speak into our circumstances, doing His life-changing work in us.
That was the case for Israel. They had waited for 400 silent years, the time between the Old and New Testaments, for God to speak once again. The wait was long and arduous. I’m certain there were times of question and doubt during the silence. Multiple generations had come and gone since God had last communicated with His prophet Malichi. Now He was inexplicably speaking to a young teenage girl (Mary) and would shortly begin to proclaim the words of repentance through the voice of a 30-year-old man (John the Baptist). All of this seemed strange, I’m sure, but God was once again speaking in odd and unique ways.
It seems like God always uses the least likely of people and the most interesting moments in preparing the way for the season of hopeful anticipation. I’m confident that is still the case. God still speaks and proclaims in ways that we never dreamed. As you prepare for the season of Advent, I hope you are preparing for God to do something extraordinary in and with you. Who knows, you may be the voice of hopeful anticipation for someone. Or it could be that just when you least expect it, God would choose to speak to you.
I want to encourage you, don’t just wait for family to arrive and holiday niceties to unfold like years past. This year, look and listen for the voice of the God who still speaks even after all these years. Hopeful anticipation is speaking into your life and mine once again.
Dr. Scott Peterson,