Advent Devotional by Sanford Beckett

Luke 3:1-18

The people were waiting expectantly . . . Luke 3:15a NIV

People were going to the desert to hear John’s message about repentance.  They had an expectancy of the coming of the One who would bring them peace.  They had been waiting for a long time.

Often (probably too often) I will go and look out the window for someone we are expecting.  When they are late I will also look at the clock and wonder, “are they ok?”  And when they arrive the expectancy turns to joy.  I’m sure you have experienced the same.

One of my fondest memories is seeing my family after I had been away for a month.  I saw them waiting as the airplane taxied to the gate.  Our daughter was ten at the time.  She was jumping up and down with excitement and joy.  For several years I would do the same for her as I would meet her plane after she returned from a trip.

We all have waited expectantly for almost two years during the Covid 19 pandemic.  We have waited expectantly for a vaccine, for accurate information, for others to act responsibly, for it to be over!  Maybe, just maybe in all of this, it is time for us to be waiting expectantly on the Lord.  John the Baptizer points us in that way.  Maybe this is where we will find our peace as well as hope.  Maybe so. . . .                      

Sanford Beckett