What Are You Waiting For? An Advent Prayer

Advent is the beginning of the Church calendar, and if you didn’t already know, it started last Sunday. This season leads us to Christmas, at which time we remember the birth of Jesus Christ. It’s also a time for us to remember that Christ is present in our hearts today, and probably most importantly, Advent brings our anticipation of Jesus’ second coming front and centre.

In that sense, Advent isn’t only a time for us to remember the anticipation of Mary, Joseph, and the millions of others who were waiting for the Messiah to come. We too are a people in waiting, and as we look to the promises that God made to the world and the Church, we hope for the amazing reconciliation, new life, judgement, and grace that await God’s creation.

Christianity is about waiting for the kingdom of God to come in full while already living fully into it’s inauguration through Jesus. But if there’s one thing I know about waiting, it’s that waiting is hard. I don’t like to wait and I’m sure you don’t either. And so I offer this prayer in our time of waiting during the Christmas season, as we celebrate the God who came into the world. He has come and He will come again.

Most Holy Creator,

In the beginning, as You hovered over the face of the waters,
You decided that You would create.
With each passing day, You spoke the universe into being,
first bringing order to a formless earth
and then filling that earth with all kinds of life.
I wonder if the uncreated ever asked what You were waiting for?
But I do know that when the time was right,
You acted and made Your creation very good.

When Adam and Eve sinned and walked away from You,
You gave them a hint that sin and evil would not linger forever.
With each passing day, as they saw how sin brought death to their own children,
the hope of an offspring that would crush the head of the serpent
must have grown with longing and anticipation.
I wonder if Adam and Eve ever asked what You were waiting for?
But I do know that when the time was right,
You acted and started the family line that would eventually lead to Jesus.

When Abram and Sarai decided to trust in You and leave their home,
You promised them a family as numerous as the stars in the sky.
With each passing day they realized their biological clocks were ticking,
and no matter how much they tried they couldn’t conceive;
they must have thought that maybe they didn’t actually hear Your voice.
I wonder if Abraham and Sarah ever asked what You were waiting for?
But I do know that when the time was right,
You acted and gave Sarah a boy named Isaac.

When Isaac’s descendants, the Israelites, were in captivity in Egypt,
You gave them hope that You would come to deliver them.
With each passing day, as the work load continued to rise
and parents saw their children become slave labourers just like them,
they must have wondered if this was what it meant to be God’s people.
I wonder if the Israelites ever asked what You were waiting for?
But I do know that when the time was right,
You acted and called Moses to lead the Israelites into the promised land.

When Israel was in exile in Babylon, after being a powerful nation for generations,
You promised them that a king would return from the line of David to rule once again.
With each passing day, as the destruction of their homeland continued to sink in
and their captors forced them to sing the joyful songs of Jerusalem,
they must have stopped dreaming of better days to come.
I wonder if the exiles ever asked what You were waiting for?
But I do know that when the time was right,
You acted and re-established Israel so that the Son of God would enter into our midst.

We are not Israel, but as the body of Christ, we are your children.
Although we know you are with us in Spirit and in the Church,
You promised that you will come again to make all things right.
With each passing day, as violence, war, abuse, addiction, greed, lust, and pride
continue to ravage this world and our own hearts,
We sometimes wonder if your justice will ever come.
We ask you, Lord, what are You waiting for?
But we know that when the time is right,
You will come to bring about the new heavens and the new Earth,
to infuse the world with Your love, and to reconcile all things to Yourself.

We await the coming of Your kingdom in full.
Come, Lord Jesus,
Amen.