A Word to Live Into

How are you expectant?

I can remember a time when I was expectant. The memory of it is significant because it was unlike anything I had ever done or experienced before. I was traveling to India to meet the parents of the man I later married. I had never been there. I didn’t know the language and was not very well informed about the culture. As I prepared to go, I wondered what it would be like. I wondered if his family would like me. I wondered if I would fit in. You can be expectant without knowing what to expect. Yet, knowing the man who brought me to this new place assured me that it would be good. I believed that something extraordinary was about to happen.

You may not be planning a trip, but you are being invited to meet someone who could change your life. That is what Advent is about. We are preparing to meet Jesus. What can we expect?

I like the word expectant. Consider its meaning:

I am reminded of the familiar hymn: Come Thou Long Expected Jesus. Jesus is the long-expected one we meet in Isaiah 9. We learn that authority rests upon his shoulders, and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. In him, says Frederick Buechner, is “the power of God to bring light into our darkness, to make us whole, to give a new kind of life to anybody who turned toward him in faith.” *

To live with hope - to be expectant - is to believe you will see or hear or encounter something. You can expect the best or the worst. You can hope or worry. You can trust or be afraid. And if you really do believe there is something about to happen, you will look for it. You will expect it. You will be ready for it.

What do we need to remember about Jesus as we wait expectantly for him?

Jesus tells us that he is our good shepherd. He tells us that he knows his sheep and his sheep know his voice. They know him. Even more, he is fully committed to his sheep. He will lay down his life for them. We learn that with him, as his sheep, goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives (Ps 23)

Jesus also tells us what he wants for us when he comes. Jesus wants the world to know that God the Father sent him and that the Father loves us even as he loved Jesus, his beloved son. (John 17:23) At the most basic level, we know that God is love. Imagine love itself loving you. Imagine God loving you even as he loves Jesus, his beloved son. This is what we can expect.

In some ways, we are living in darkness. We are waiting for something. Remember, the light has dawned. Something is about to happen. Can you see it? Can you hear it? Knowing who Jesus is and that he is with us, we can be assured that it will be good.

How to live into the word….

1. What are you hoping for?

2. How can you live expectantly? How can you arrange your day to help you be expectant? How can you prepare your heart to be expectant?

3. What do you most long for - a Wonderful Counselor? MightyGod? Everlasting Father? Prince of Peace?

4. Reflect on the Hymn, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.

What does it say to you?

What is coming?

What can we do to help us hear it?

___________________________

* Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark