Dear Friends,

Waiting with patience and hope.  It’s not something that I find easy to do, especially in a culture where it seems everything is available with just one click.  But that’s what we’re called to do … to wait with patience and hope for the coming of Christ.  Advent emphasizes this call in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Advent is the season of preparation and anticipation, of watching and waiting – active waiting.  It is a time of preparation for Christ’s return and the establishment of the kingdom of God.  It is a reminder that we are heading someplace…that we are works in progress…that we are longing for something more…that we are looking forward to a future filled with hope.

At the same time, we are looking back.  We are recalling how God became real through the Incarnation…the time when God broke into our history, took on flesh, and lived among us.  And still, in looking both forward and backward, we live for today.  We live in the reality that God – Emmanuel (which means “God with us”) – breaks into our lives even now to remind us of that which we work for and that which we await.

So today, I encourage to wait with patience and hope.  As you wait, look for the ways in which Christ is working through you and around you.  Open yourself up to the wonder that Christ can bring.

I hope you’ll join me for worship in the sanctuary this Sunday at 10:00am as we wait patiently together and reflect on God’s gift to all of us.

Blessings,

Rev. Malinda Weaver