Advent: Rediscovering Christmas in the Chaosናሙና

Waiting with Hope

The Advent season encompasses the four weeks before Christmas and is a time meant to prepare our hearts to celebrate Christ’s birth. During the first week of Advent, we focus on HOPE.

Hope implies waiting. Hope requires patience.

The Lord is good to those who HOPE in Him,
to those who seek Him.
It is good to wait quietly
for the Lord to save.
– Lamentations 3:25-26 (NCV)

The word that is translated as HOPE in these verses is the Hebrew word qavah. It is sometimes translated as “to wait for.” Its literal definition in Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible is “to bind together (perhaps by twisting)” and comes from the word for cord.

The word means, in essence, the feeling of anticipation you have when you are waiting for something positive to happen. Qavah can be compared to the secure tension you feel when you are holding onto a rope and someone else is also holding firmly to the other end of it. In my mind, I picture a strong, braided rope holding us fast to God.

Imagine what happens when you let go of the rope or allow too much slack. No more tension. No more hope.

In other words, hope requires some action on our part.

Waiting quietly might not seem like an action. In fact, for someone like me (a consummate planner), waiting seems very much like total inaction. Yet, this is how we are called to hope—we actually need to be very deliberate in our patient waiting.

Waiting quietly cannot happen as we run from place to place and bake, shop, sing, and eat our way through the holiday season.

Waiting quietly requires time, a place where we will not be disturbed, and listening ears to discover the small steps God has put in front of us for this day, instead of rushing ahead to the finish line on our own.

And as we patiently wait with anticipation, God promises to strengthen us…

But those who HOPE [qavah] in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
– Isaiah 40:31 (NIV)

I invite you this Advent season, as you start making your to-do lists, to carve out time to wait quietly. Intentionally set aside still moments to seek Him. Find a comfy chair and have a one-on-one conversation with God for a few minutes each day. Hold on to the rope of HOPE, and feel what it is like to find Him holding on securely to the other end.