Today, those of us who are Christians enter into a season of waiting - the season of Advent.
Advent comes at the end of November and into the dimming light of December. In the Northern hemisphere, days are shorter and grayer and shadows linger. For those of us who love light, it is tempting to push aside the darker days, brightening them with as much light as possible. Waiting in the dark is long and hard.
Yet I know many right now who are doing just that. They are waiting in the dark.
They are waiting for jobs that never seem to come, interviews that are few and far between with the dreaded "Although you are well qualified, we have decided to move forward with another candidate," that comes every time. Unemployment is their long journey in the dark. Others are waiting for a body scan to show cancer in remission instead of the continual need for chemotherapy. Still others wait for a child to return home, or at least return their texts. There is the waiting for death, which they've been told is not far off - and yet, they hurt with the pain of a body that used to serve them well and now fails them at every step. They are waiting for visas and for borders to open. They are waiting for ceasefires - for bombings to stop and a semblance of peace to be restored.
Added to this is the world's waiting for a vaccine, for a pandemic that has taken over people's lives, friendships, and emotions to end.
Into this waiting comes the season of Advent. Advent is another waiting in the dark. The difference is that unlike these other situations, Advent is like a tunnel where we see the light at the end. Not only do we see the light, we know and long for this light.
But we are at the beginning of the tunnel and it will take time to reach the end. And so we wait.
And as we wait, we walk toward the light. We walk with expectation and anticipation toward the coming - the coming of hope, the coming of light, the coming of God, birthed in the flesh.
God did not throw us alone into an empty universe. He did not place us on a tiny planet where he afterward forgot all about us. No! He entered into our life, our history. He himself came to us, not merely to save us, but to clothe us with His grace, to transform us according to his likeness.
Father Maximos on November 29 at Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church
In this next month, I will be writing each Sunday of waiting, of expectation, of Advent. I would love for you to join me! For companions in my journey I have chosen these two books: Shadow & Light by Tsh Oxenreider and Let all Creation Rejoice by Father Stavros N. Akrotirianakis.
