The Days Are Coming by David Fulk

The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people … ”

Jeremiah 33:14

The days are coming,” was nothing new to the Israelites as Jeremiah prophesied during their captivity in Babylon. For centuries before and after they were perpetually waiting for “the days to come.” But it’s their waiting that’s central to our Advent.

Today we don’t wait on much … fast food, listening and watching on demand, instant answers on the Internet, etc. In fact, we placed an Amazon order this summer that was delivered in about four hours! What a change from my childhood or—even more—that of my grandparents’ when they waited for the Wells Fargo Wagon!

That change is what’s created our seasonal dissonance. The world around us expects an Amazon Christmas, while the church wants us to have a Wells Fargo Advent.

It doesn’t help that things we wait for have negative connotations: DMV lines, customer service phone queues, the anxiety of waiting for medical news. We’re conditioned to believe waiting is bad.

We know, however, there are things worth waiting for: a well-seasoned soup that simmered through a winter’s day, fresh-baked anything right out of the oven, an amazing vacation, seeing someone dear we haven’t seen in ages, the arrival of a baby. Ah, the arrival of a baby. There it is.

The waiting/preparing we’re asked to do in Advent isn’t for the sake of a happy Christmas morning and the relief we feel when it’s over. It’s to prepare our hearts to receive the love baby Jesus makes possible for us and how that love can change us and the world long beyond Christmas.

“The days are coming.” Christmas will arrive before we’re ready, so use these devotions as a time to reflect, to prepare, to breathe, and to think deeply about who and what we’re waiting for. God’s “good promise” awaits, like a beautifully wrapped gift.

DAVID M. FULK