Day Five
Rev. Karen Torrez
St. Paul Lutheran Church
Bridgeport, Ohio
Genesis 8.1-19
Romans 6.1-11
Noah and his family spent just over a year within the confines of the ark. During that year it seems as if they were constantly waiting on something…waiting on the waters to rise, waiting on the waters to subside, waiting to send out the dove, waiting on the dove’s return and waiting for the time for all humans and animals to exit the ark to walk on the glorious earth once again. Timing was everything. Although I imagine they were longing for the feel of solid ground beneath their feet and the sight of the clear blue sky above them and were anxious to throw open those doors, instead they waited. Exiting the ark prematurely would have been a disaster; so they waited…waited on Gods timing and not their own. The odds of you and I finding ourselves having to wait inside an ark for a year are slim, but we do find ourselves having to do a lot of waiting on other things and in other ways. And I’ll admit, I’m not very good at waiting; which is one of the reasons I’ve always loved Advent. It’s a time set aside to wait, to anticipate, to reflect and to prepare. One aspect of waiting that I find particularly difficult is exactly what Noah excelled at…waiting on God’s timing and not relying on my own sense of timing. What looks like failure to me, is often not failure at all; but in fact just part of the process of waiting for the time to be right. In the early 1930’s the McVicker brothers invented a wallpaper cleaning compound that they thought for sure would take the world by storm; and while it did meet with modest success at first, it quickly faded into obscurity. The change from coal fed furnaces to oil furnaces and the invention of vinyl wallpaper made a wallpaper cleaning compound basically useless. So it set on a shelf for years…until the Mc Vicker’s sister-in-law lamented to them that she needed something new for her art classes. She needed a substance that would be easier for little hands to mold than the hard modeling clay they were currently using. Out came the wallpaper cleaner and within a short period of time its name had been changed and “Play-Doh” was taking the world by storm. It is indeed a matter of timing; a matter of timing for Noah, a matter of timing for the Mc Vicker brothers and a matter of timing for us. Throughout the year it’s easy to get caught up in the anxiety that often accompanies waiting and the uncertainty that comes with discerning God’s timing versus our timing; but once a year Advent rolls around and brings with it a chance to see the beauty in waiting, to embrace waiting and to know that God’s timing is indeed the best timing of all.
___
Gracious God, as we welcome Advent again this year; break through the busyness of our lives, the impatience and restlessness of our hearts, and help us discover the joy of waiting and the beauty of your timing. Quiet the many competing voices within us so that we may discern your will for us as we await the coming of your son as a babe in the manger and as we await his coming again as the victorious King of Kings. Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment