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“In just a little while he who is coming will come and will not delay.” —Hebrews 10:37 NIV

Most of us just hate waiting. I know I do, and Greg hates waiting even more! He often reminds me, “Early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable.”

One thing is for sure: all kids hate waiting for Christmas morning. Have you noticed that we actually do things to accentuate the fact that we are waiting? December drags on and on! For one thing, the mall starts putting up decorations on the 4th of July now.

How many of you have Advent calendars around your house, the ones with the cute little barn doors that you open up and there is some little prize inside? It is basically a reminder that for 24 days in a row (just in case your kids forgot), Christmas is not here yet. It drives kids crazy.

There is a southern phrase that is now a country song called Slow as Christmas. And Christmas was slow in coming the first time wasn’t it? We still sing, “Come, Thou long-expected Savior.” This aspect of waiting is actually a very important part of Christian tradition because it reminds us that life for the believer is full of waiting for ultimate and final redemption.

I remember two times of especially hating to wait. Those nine months of pregnancy before each of my boys were born were the slowest months of my life. But no one wants a baby to get there early. It may be hard to wait, but there are important things developing in that womb that you don’t want to stop—nor do you want to rush them.

So I have been thinking, what if in the waiting season of my life when God seems so silent and so slow in coming, God has a purpose in what He is doing (or seemingly not doing)? What if the purpose of God is to form in you some very important things?

I know we want Him to come and fix everything in this broken world, in our broken families, in our broken hearts, but He must have a purpose in the wait. And if we refuse to wait, perhaps we will abort the good work He wants to do in us. God cares about what He is doing in you.

After our son Christopher was taken suddenly to heaven in 2008, I was so ready for the Second Advent! The Lord gave me a scripture that I would write and tuck into my Daily Light Journal. It was Hebrews 10:37: “In just a little while he who is coming will come and will not delay.” I wondered as I waited how long it might be before I would hear my son’s voice again, kiss his cheek, hug him tightly.

In my deep pain, I experienced my heart breaking in pieces. It has been six years. My heart still is broken, but I’ve found that this brokenness has made room for Jesus to fill up in ways I had never known. It made room for us to see a book written, Hope for Hurting Hearts, an award-winning movie made, room for four more beautiful grandchildren, a new church has been born, and thousands of other lives have been touched.

I know you may think He is late, but He is not. He has never been late . . . ever. The apostle Paul only once in his letters refers to the birth of Jesus. Here is what He said, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son” (Galatians 4:4 NKJV). Fullness of time is a majestic Greek phrase that translates: when the time was just right.

Here is what I have discovered: in the wait, what we get is Jesus. God gives us a promise of ultimate fulfillment in the future; but what we get now in the present is Emmanuel. Not always the answers we long for, but His perfect presence in our lives. He gave us Himself. It is in Jesus, as we wait this Advent season, that what we are given is not a concept or an idea but a Person. He didn’t give us a placebo or a pill or mere good advice. He gave us Himself. God with us . . . Emmanuel!