We are all familiar with waiting. It is a part of life. Entire rooms have been devoted to it. The DMV, Medical offices, and the tire store all have waiting rooms. We wait for babies, for houses to be built, for resolutions to problems, for the cable company, for the slower spouse and for meals at a restaurant. Sometimes we tire of waiting and are wrongly accused of impatience. Other times we tire of waiting and are correctly accused of impatience. Pain, hunger, fear, busy schedules and excitement all feed our sense that we can’t wait any longer.

The wait has a purpose. Waiting for something good makes you value it more when you get it. (Waiting for your children to put their shoes on doesn’t count) Anticipating your wedding, waiting for a new car, counting the days before a vacation, looking forward to retirement or expecting a joyous reunion with someone you love helps you enjoy it more when you actually gain the thing you’ve been waiting for. And yet all of these things while good in themselves cannot permanently satisfy. You wait for them, gain them, enjoy them temporarily and then they are over. Even those things that last a lifetime, end.

Waiting for Something? That’s the title of our Advent Series this year. Every one of us is waiting for something. Have you set your heart on things that won’t last? Or have you given yourself to the very purpose for which you were made which is to know Christ better than you know anyone else and to love Him more than you love anyone or anything else? If so then you know that you must wait.

We are told much about how to wait. Patiently, actively and happily we are to wait on Christ. Some things He gives us instantly like the forgiveness of sins, a new heart and certainly a new relationship with God as our Father. But the final fulfillment of a permanent home where there is no sorrow, sadness, crying, pain or sin is in our future. It is a future with Jesus, living in His direct presence together with all who have trusted Him. This is our destiny, our hope, our certain rest. Waiting for it will take us a lot of different places and require more changes than a teenager’s wardrobe. But Jesus is worth the wait. Many tire, give up and chase lesser things that will never satisfy. But for those who “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness…all these other things will be added unto them.” Matthew 6:33

Make Christ central. Revolve your life around Him. And you just wait and see if He isn’t worth it.

We began this series last Sunday with a message titled, “When you die waiting.” (It is available on our website, www.jordanpresbyterian.org)

Merry Christmas,

Tim