No pictures today.
Today I am traveling to visit my mom in Arizona.
Today I will arrive at the Akron/Canton Airport nearly two hours before my plane is scheduled to depart. My family thinks I’m a little crazy about this…maybe I am. I want to be sure that I am at my gate in plenty of time. I don’t mind waiting. I have things to keep me busy. Things like blog posts to write and books to read.
One year we did the OJ thing, but it looked more like the Home alone family running through the airport. I have nightmares about missing flights and being stranded.
I prefer leisurely strolling through the airport and relaxing at my gate….as much as one can relax on those benches.
I haven’t always been this way and there are times when I can slip into the old worry-worry-fret-fret mode. It’s not pretty. And that craziness is totally unappreciated by my family.
What kind of wait-er are you? Are you a foot-tapping deep-sigher? Do you consider having to wait as an inconvenience? Do you seek out the shortest shopping check-out lane? Do you weave in out of traffic to have the privilege of sitting at the light one car length ahead of me (me being the “pokey” driver who had the audacity to drive speed limit)?
For today’s text I would like you to turn to the end of the Old Testament. In most Bibles then there is an empty page before you find the first page of the New Testament. Do you realize that empty page is worth about 400 years? No check-out at Walmart ever takes that long, not even on the worst return day after Christmas!
God was silent for 400 years, but the people kept looking, kept hoping, kept waiting for Messiah to come.
I’m going to guess that at some point in this Advent season you will have to wait. Wait for the turkey to thaw. Wait to check out. Wait for someone to arrive. Wait in traffic. When you realize that you are in “waiting” mode first take stock of how you are waiting: are you feeling hopeful or irritated; are you positively expectant or negatively exasperated?
Here’s the really cool thing about this waiting! You know what’s coming. Those people living in the 400 years of God-silence didn’t know what was coming, or when.
So when you find yourself waiting take a moment of that time to thank God because you do not wait alone. They didn’t either, but they didn’t know it. God was waiting to…waiting for the time to be just right…just right to give you the very best gift of all.
Blessings on your times of waiting…oh and be a blessing, too!
Pot of Manna 