I CAN'T WAIT

When our girls were growing up during this time of the year, we would often hear them say to us, “I can’t wait. I just can’t wait for Christmas.” We would smile and say, “Honey, you’ll just have to. Christmas will get here soon enough.” But, of course, it would never be soon enough for them. They wanted to celebrate right then and there. As Christmas approached, their anticipation and impatience only increased. Was it any wonder they had to wake us so early Christmas morning?

Whether or not this forced waiting did them any good, made them appreciate Christmas any better is an unknown. Yet being forced to wait should have. It certainly should for those of us who are old enough to know that we can’t rush time no matter how much we desire to do so. Time marches on in its preordained pace and nothing and no one can or will make it go faster or slow it down.

What matters, of course, is what we do with the time, what we do while we await whatever it is we are awaiting. How we use that time more often than not will determine how the event we await turns out. I am awaiting a surgical repair to my artificial hip at the end of January. How I use the time between now and then may, and probably will, determine the outcome of the surgery.  If I follow my surgeon’s instructions, if I don’t obsess about the surgery and worry about its outcome, I trust all will be well. If not, maybe not.

The same is true for this time of the year. I suspect our kids (sorry, girls, you will always be our kids no matter how old you are) never used the waiting time between their first notion that Christmas was coming soon and its actual arrival to reflect on the real meaning of that celebration. For them the real meaning was material (presents) and not spiritual (the celebration of the presence of Jesus in their lives). They could be excused even when we tried to help them understand the spiritual. They were kids after all.

We adults, however, cannot get off so easily. Nor should we. Advent is a time of waiting. For certain we know for whom and for what we are waiting. Again, what is important is how we use this time between now and then. It is so easy to get caught up in the material the way children do that we have little or no time to reflect on the spiritual. In fact, the material element that has become such a necessary part of the celebration can so consume us that the spiritual element, which is what the day is all about, is simply lost.  

Given all the material distractions of the Advent season, distractions that will not go away and from which we cannot hide, it takes an effort, perhaps a supreme effort, for us to find and make the time to reflect on the spiritual reason for our celebration of Jesus’ birth among us. We don’t have to find a lot of time. That may be asking too much. I don’t think Jesus is asking too much of us if we would just find a little time each day, a minute or two, to quietly reflect on the real meaning of Christmas and to give thanks for all the undeserved blessings that have been given to us. Doing so will make our waiting both meaningful and worthwhile.