God is waiting for us...

Advent is a time of preparing ourselves for Christmas.  Both in preparing ourselves for the holiday of Christmas, and, even more importantly, in preparing ourselves for the next Christmas, if you will.  Jesus said He will come again, and we, as Christians, believe that, and look forward to that.  Advent is a time for making sure we're ready when He does come back.

I received this email recently that suggests that we don't have to wait.  God is here now, actually waiting for us.  Something to think about in this Advent Season...

The mention of Advent always stirs thoughts of waiting. . . 

waiting for Christmas.  

We Theologians always speak of reflecting on the three ways of Christ's coming: in history in Bethlehem,

 in the daily events of our lives, and the second coming in the future.
 
I've been thinking that we've got it all wrong.  We need not wait for God.  God is always present, always with us.  That's what the name Emmanuel means:  God-with-us.   And, that's the primary truth we hear in the Scriptures.  God created us, and calls us into relationship.  God is indeed present with us, and especially in the person of Jesus the Christ.
 
No, this Advent, I've come to see that it's GOD who waits for US. . .
 
. . .waits for us to notice that we are indeed created by God.  

We are born with unique gifts and qualities

as well as deficiencies and lack of qualities.
God only sees our goodness, and waits for us to notice too.

. . .waits for us to notice the myriad ways

 in which God is with us, always.
We know the Creator in the beauty and amazing capacities of creation, both earth and human.   We know the Creator when we experience love.  We know the Creator when we can not explain or understand mystery.

. . .waits for us to notice when we observe people acting in the image of God: in covenant with one another, both those known and unknown, both those alike and those very different.

. . .waits for us to notice the emptiness in our hearts

that can only be filled by God's own Self.

. . .in the season of Advent, as Christmas approaches, God waits for us to notice the wonder and innocence of little children.  How God must long for us grownups to be more like them, without guile.

It is true that in Advent we wait; but really, it is God who waits for us. 

May we savor and revel in that reality.

                                                              Sallie Latkovich, CSJ