Hurry up and wait, isn’t that how the saying goes? As I write today, I’m sitting in a hospital waiting room. My husband is having surgery today to fix a herniated disk. Due to some complications with the surgery before his, they are running two and half hours behind. I feel like I’m trapped in that episode of friends, remember the one when Racheal is having her baby, numerous women come, go into labor, leave, but she continues to wait and wait. That pretty much sums up what we felt like most of today-minus the baby part of course. So many thoughts and if I’m honest a hint of irritation and worry fill my head. Thoughts like: he was supposed be done by now and already be in a room, will I even be able to see him after surgery with the shortened visiting hours in effect. Not to mention so many nurses and support staff have left and the doctor has to be tired, is it even safe to do the surgery now? Waiting is hard and if you’re not careful can open the door to worry. Thankfully, we have been blessed with an awesome group of people who love and care for us. Their frequent texts serve as a reminder that God did some pretty amazing things this past week to even get us to this point. Which encourages me to wait in faith and hope.

Christmas, which is now only a few days away comes with its fair share of waiting; some of it is anticipation, some anxiousness, some worry, there is waiting for your turn, and then waiting for Christmas morning to finally be here! All in all, we are a pretty impatient people these days, we live in an instant society for the most part. With microwaves, drive thru restaurants and smart phones at our finger tips, there is not much we have had to wait for. Until recently that is, because among the many unwanted gifts 2020 has given us, it has also given us a tremendous opportunity to practice waiting. We’ve waited to go back to church, school, work, sports, etc… Some have waited to see loved ones or hold new grandbabies, others have waited to get married or take trips. And sadly, there are some who are still waiting to re-enter life. Have you ever waited for something so long that you forget what you’re waiting for?  Or do you ever wonder about the purpose for the waiting?

Take the shepherds that we read about in Luke 2 for instance. There they were hanging out with their sheep, when suddenly angels appear and announce “Today in the city of David a Savior is born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord”. As men of Jewish lineage, they no doubt grew up hearing stories about a coming Messiah. But you have to wonder, on that night that the angels visited them, did they even realize they had been waiting? Did they realize that this baby was the One they’d been waiting for?  It had been 400 years since they’d heard anything from a prophet, king, or priest about this promised Messiah. So, you just have to wonder- had they stopped waiting, stopped telling the stories, stopped believing? In the very least the anticipation had to have faded over time, right?

That night however, seemingly without warning, the angels visited these men and everything changed. Their waiting had ended or so it would seem. They were waiting for a king, and this was a baby. They were waiting for the one who would bring their people peace, isn’t what the prophet Isaiah said “he will be called Prince of Peace”? They were waiting for change, waiting to be noticed, they were waiting to once again be a strong and mighty nation. How on earth was a baby going to do all these things?

These shepherds did what the angels told them and ran off to go visit this new baby King. But what came next? Luke tells us they told others “about all they’d seen and heard”, but how long did that go on? You’d have to assume that at some point they went back to tending their flocks of sheep. That was their job after all and how they supported themselves and their families. Did their anticipation build over those 33 years that Jesus grew up and prepared for his ministry? Did they recognize that John the Baptist was pointing the way to this baby they’d visited all those years ago? Did they connect the dots when Jesus began teaching, healing and raising people from the dead? Did they follow Jesus? Were they among the 5,000 men who ate of the two fish and five loaves, or were they there when Lazarus walked out of that grave? Where were these shepherds when Jesus was arrested? Which side were they on? We’re they among those yelling “crucify him” or those who were confused and weeping?

I wonder about these things. It’s kind of like watching a hallmark movie, which all end the same way, with the young couple finding love and seemingly living happily ever after. But we don’t know that! Don’t you want to know what happens after the kiss? I know I do, just like I wonder, what became of these shepherds? Because, here’s the deal, we are still waiting for the same thing the shepherds were. And maybe, much like them we’ve also forgotten that we are waiting for Jesus. We wait for him to return, we wait for him work, we wait for him to save and heal and restore.

I’ve grown tired of waiting. Tired of waiting for the perfect job, for my daughters to settle into adulthood, for relationships to be restored, and for us to completely re-open! I’m tired of waiting on circumstances to make me happy. I’m tired of living in the land of “what if”. Maybe, just maybe it’s time we stopped? Not necessarily stopped waiting, since that’s kind of impossible, but what if we waited differently?

What if we started actually trusting Jesus, like we say we do? What if we stepped out in boldness to tell everyone we meet that Jesus has in fact come, and that He is alive and working and He is coming again! What if we stopped waiting for others (spouse, kids, friends, family, pastors) or things (jobs, churches, governments, medicine) and instead really started living for Jesus? What if when we waited, we did so with anticipation and expectancy of Jesus and what He is going to do?

Luke 2:20 tells us “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had seen and heard, which were just as they had been told.” What if we did the same?