Advent: An Active Waiting

A couple years ago during a time of waiting, I found and read The Meaning Is In The Waiting by Paula Gooder. It was meaningful at the time, and I've often thought of that book and some of the things I read there.

Here I am again, in a different season of waiting. Miraculously it coincides with Christmas and particularly Advent. I found my book again and immediately was struck again, as I have been more and more often lately at this waiting and the meaning I am finding there.

Waiting is not fun.

Here is a quote directly from the book. Page 7 and forward.

" It was only when I was pregnant with my first child that I realized that I had completely misunderstood what waiting was about. I have a very low boredom threshold and, consequently, am very bad at waiting. Waiting makes me anxious, restless, and uneasy. Imagine my bemusement then to encounter an experience that is entirely about waiting. No one who is expecting a child wants the waiting to end and the baby to come early- that can only spell heartache. The only thing to do in pregnancy is to wait, and not only that but to hope against hope that the period of waiting does not end prematurely. It was during this period of enforced waiting that I began to discover that waiting is not just about passing the time between the moment when expectation is raised and when it comes to completion - in this instance between conception and birth - but that it has deep and lasting value in and of itself. As I waited for my baby, I discovered that waiting can be a nurturing time, valuable in it own right. Until then, I had assumed that waiting could only be passive, that it involved sitting around, drumming my fingers, completely powerless to do anything until the moment of waiting passed and I could be active again. How wrong I was. The waiting of pregnancy is about as active an occupation as one can hope to engage in. Pregnant waiting is a profoundly creative act, involving a slow growth to new life. This kind of waiting may appear passive externally but internally consists of never-ending action and is a helpful analogy of the kind of waiting Advent requires. "

I wish I could quote the whole book but will stop there.

This Advent will be even more meaningful than ever as I expect my first child during Advent. The Christmas narrative has elements that are even more real to me now. As expectation towards the coming of Christ builds in the church and in our hearts, the expectation of the arrival of my own Little Lentil is also building. An active waiting. I understand now so much better.