Advent: Just eat the chocolate!

 

One of the things I love the most about Christmas is the food! There are so many delicious things to eat and drink over Christmas and I find myself guarding the cupboards and fridge in the build up declaring “You Can’t Eat that…It’s for Christmas!” This year God has been challenging me and my thinking of advent and in a funny way it has changed the way I consider all those Christmas treats! 

Advent is a season of waiting and is all about awaiting Christmas and the birth of Jesus. Throughout this time we wait with anticipation and expectancy, and there seems to be a stillness in the waiting. This is often contrasted sharply with the preparation, the busyness and ‘doing’ of sharing the news about the coming of Jesus. 

For many years I have found this a really difficult tension. I feel guilty about the ever, growing to do list if I slow down to the advent rhythm of waiting  or even stop for a while. I often feel too, however, that I am failing to wait well if I go about doing all the things that need to be done and don’t take the time to stop in expectation of his arrival. 

 This year God has been challenging me in my attitude to advent and this season of waiting. We all go through seasons of waiting and the characters in the bible were no exception. As part of an advent retreat day that my husband Paul and I spent together, we looked at the story of Abraham and Sarah and considered their waiting. One thing that struck me about their waiting was that it wasn’t a passive waiting, they didn’t spend their whole lives waiting for the promise to be fulfilled, they went about living their lives for God, and even though they made mistakes along the way they continued to live out their life in service to God. 

Often when we think of waiting, we think of the stillness of sitting in the doctor’s waiting room, or an orderly queue, however God has shown me, throughout my life that waiting doesn’t have to be a passive thing and we can be active for God in our waiting. As many of you know, I have been walking through infertility for a number of years and I will always remember a conversion Paul and I had as we began to realise that extending our family might not be as simple as we once hoped. For some time I had been living my life nine months ahead, afraid to make decisions, book holidays or plan ahead in case this would be the month that I got pregnant. It was exhausting, heartbreaking and debilitating. As Paul and I talked about it, we made the decision that we wouldn’t let our waiting affect our marriage, our life or our usefulness for God. We had faith it would happen when the time is right, and in the meantime we would enjoy life in the waiting. 

When it comes to advent ,the tension between the waiting or the being and the activity or the doing can be healthy, it helps us to stop and take stock of the season and also helps us to spread the message and prepare for the celebration. This year, however, God has been talking to me about taking an active balance. Rather that waiting for the one day to celebrate, rather than saving all the joy and celebration until the 25th when I’m allowed to rejoice in Christs coming, advent is a season of active waiting, of celebrating every day including the 25th and embracing the tension rather than allowing guilt to consume me. 

So in the few days we have left until Christmas I declare Eat the Christmas trifle, enjoy that bottle of Shloer and crack open that box of celebrations! Let us learn to embrace the activity of waiting while still remembering to take the time to stop, put on the pjs and enjoy the stillness of anticipation!