The Ways We Wait

Last Sunday was the 1st Sunday of Advent. It was also the first time my son Jonah received communion. We typically take communion on the first Sunday of each month, but we began Advent by coming to the table together.

I always thought I would wait until our kids were older before we would invite them to receive communion, but all the reasons I had were really NOT good (or Christian) ones and so when Jonah began asking about it, it seemed like a good time to tell him that this table was for him too.

And so, as I took Jonah up to communion this week and then afterward as we watched all the people coming to eat and drink I thought about one of the ways that John Wesley liked to talk about things like prayer, searching the Scriptures, and taking communion. He use to say that these were the ways in which God had given to God's people TO WAIT.

Waiting for Christians is not a passive exercise. But God gives us ways of waiting that give us strength for the journey and that teaches our hearts and lives to hope and hunger for the great coming of God's Kingdom, when God will put to rights all that has gone wrong w/ this world so found of darkness, hate, and selfishness.

As Jonah and I sat there watching all the people come to the table I could not help but feel that, as we began another Advent season, we were celebrating and worshiping Jesus in a very fitting way. We were learning to wait in one of the main ways God has given us to wait. And it takes a lifetime of waiting in these ways to make God's people a group of people who can deeply and honestly say, "Come Lord Jesus, come!"