Waiting on the Baby

   How are you with waiting? Me neither! Most of us don't like waiting. I have some examples to consider...

• tapping your foot while standing behind the really slow person in line at the store
• inching forward in your car even though the light is still red
• pressing the elevator button more than once

Really, those are the innocent examples of how we don't like to wait. Yet, there is no greater season of waiting that the one we are right now waiting on to start: Christmas. The church spends four weeks waiting on Christmas - we call it Advent - because we need to get our hearts ready for the big day. But, have we thought about the waiting that happened before that first Christmas? Let's go to the Bible. It says...

While they were there, the time came for Mary to have her baby. – Luke 2:6

You know the story; Joseph and Mary leave their respective homes in Galilee and travel a few days journey south to be included in the Roman census that was happening in Bethlehem, because that was something of the county seat for the local government of Joseph's family. What we don't know is how long they were there before the census was to happen. I don't think the Romans were interested in making it go smoothly. So, when it says, "while they were there," how long was that? It could have been days or weeks or even a couple of months!
   Plenty of you know about waiting for a baby to be born. Many people pass the time tying up loose ends at work, getting the nursery all set, or any number of other activities. Mary had none of those options. Imagine sitting in the home of some cousin of your fiance', more than eight months pregnant, and not knowing when the baby would finally arrive. Talk about being in the need of prayer!
   For all of the ways art and music have captured the Nativity scene perfectly, we cannot forget God choose two ordinary people in an ordinary place to enter the world as a helpless child. Do these two things, 1) don't complain about waiting without thinking about Mary in those last weeks, and 2) open your heart to God to show up in the ordinary everyday moment.
   Grace and peace, Scott