During this COVID time, we have all been spending a lot of time at home. For most of us, that means that we have more time to do some things we haven’t had the time to do before. I know people who are using that time to do some long-delayed home projects; some are cleaning out closets and storage areas and paring down; a few are learning a new language or new skill. One of the ways I am using this gift of time is to take an online Mindfulness Writing class. It is only 30 minutes a day, but it is really making a difference in the way I move through my days.

One day this week, we were invited to think and write about the “this-ness” of our lives right now. We are to write in a free-flow style. Just write whatever comes to mind. As I wrote, I found myself realizing with renewed appreciation that all of life is in a constant process of unfolding and becoming. Life in general and each of our lives in specific. We are not who we were yesterday, and we are not who we will be tomorrow. In this in-between time, God is at work. God is at work, forming us into who we will become and into what God needs us to be.

Psychologists call this a liminal time. What has been has passed away and what will be has not yet emerged. In this time, we are called to a season of waiting and wondering. I began to contemplate what an appropriate theme that is for Advent. In Advent, we wait to anticipate the coming of the Christ Child into the world and into our lives. We wonder what his coming will mean for us. 

So much happens when we wait. Babies grow and develop in the womb while we wait. Our bodies heal and our hearts mend while we wait. Our vision clears and the path forward becomes easier to see while we wait. Decisions we wrestle with find resolution while we wait. 

This waiting is not purely passive. We have to be receptive to the changes that will come. We have to remain open to the unfolding that is occurring. We have to be curious about what is happening around and within us without feeling compelled to control those forces. 

We tend to be an impatient people. We find it hard to wait. We want immediate results and immediate gratification. Waiting does not come naturally to most of us. I am beginning to see that learning to wait on God and be patient is a deeply spiritual discipline.

In this COVID time, we wait to see what our “new normal” will be.

In this season of Advent, we wait to see what the coming of the Christ Child will mean for us, for our churches, our communities, and the world and how we will be invited to join in that work. 

Although it is different this year, may Advent a sacred time of pregnant waiting for all of us.

~Pastor Wendy Witt