Waiting takes work. Not the waiting in-line kind of waiting but waiting for the conflict to resolve, healing to occur, or joy to be renewed. Advent means waiting; this is a season to remember what we are to wait for more than anything else. We are waiting for the coming of the Messiah to make all things new. To make things right. This was all anticipated when God created us in his image. God planned to send his son (fully God and fully man) to dwell among us and experience excruciating pain and rejection so we can be reconciled with him.
Athanasius, an early Church Father, writes in “On the Incarnation" that we would be more like beasts and unreasonable beings if we did not know God. He states, "why should God have made them at all if He had not intended them to know Him?” Athanasius continues. “The good God has given them a share in His own Image, that is, in our Lord Jesus Christ, and has made even themselves after the same Image and Likeness. Why? Simply in order that through this gift of Godlikeness in themselves they may be able to perceive the image Absolute, that is the Word Himself, and through Him to apprehend the Father, which knowledge of their Maker is for men the only really happy and blessed life.” We have his image so that when we see Jesus, we know God himself. This knowledge of God brings happiness and joy since we have our creator, our heavenly father, who knows and loves us.
What are we waiting for now during advent? Just as God entered the world over 2,000 years ago, we are waiting for God to enter the depth of our souls and be everything we need:
“Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD” (Psalm 27:14).
“But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:31).
We are also waiting for the day when we will know him in his fullness:
"(We) groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies" (Romans 8:23).
“For he (Abraham) was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10).
We can turn to other things and people if we do not wait well. Athanasius comments, "they transferred the honor which is due to God to material objects such as wood and stone, and also to man.” Actively wait for the one who is your eternal redeemer and friend.
