A Season of WaitingSample

John and 'You Know Who'

Stay with me on this… Do you think that Anticipation might be the wide-eyed little sister, or the rowdy cousin, or maybe the lifelong ‘BFF’ of Faith? Can you picture Anticipation and Faith reclining on their deck chairs, the sun setting on a long day of more patience, obedience, and joy? Yes, sometimes the intense eager energy of Anticipation gets on the nerves of the mostly solid-as-a-rock Faith. Other days, poor old Anticipation is completely and utterly spent. Convinced her time has come, wrecked after an awkward false start, and more than ready to make way for the one, the only… You Know Who. Faith is empathetic but confused, feeling a bit fragile, possibly spending a little too much time with the Doubt and Disappointment twins (and their pesky little brother, Distracted).

Those days are tough, and the wrestle is real. But deep down they know they’re on the same team and kind of lost without each other. They have to work together, persevering and stumbling, until You Know Who arrives. Because they both know He will.

Anticipation and Faith collide spectacularly with the arrival of John, the son of Zechariah. He was a promise miraculously fulfilled, an outlier prophet, bold messenger, and fearless evangelist. But he wasn’t You Know Who. John was simply pointing in His direction, right over there, at the beautiful intersection of all that anticipation and faith. You know, Jesus. Our hope.

Written by Justin Kendall