It occurs to me that Advent is a time of waiting. Not a passive waiting, but an expectant waiting, like Anna and Simeon who stood each day at the temple awaiting the Messiah. That kind of expectant waiting does not always inform us of what is to come, but it allows our hearts to be softened and made sensitive so that when the Lord reveals himself, we recognize him, yet we are still in awe of how he moves.
As we concluded Behold the Lamb on 12/21, I was struck that as beautiful as the music is and as much as we love playing it, it was the expectancy of blessing in the room by all who attended that was rewarded.
In our culture it's hard for us to believe that pointing our heart in the right direction and being filled with peace, hope and love are enough. We want to know and have certitude about what we know. But, what if our witness this Christmas has less to do with what we know than who we know? What if what others need and want to see in us is expectancy? We don't know exactly what comes next, but because we have tuned our hearts to actively waiting for what God will do next, we will surely recognize it and rejoice in it. For those who do not yet see with the eyes of faith, our response may help them see what they might otherwise have missed.
Chris Barrett