“I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.” (Psalm 130:5)
“I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I
put my hope.” (Psalm 130:5)
What does it look like to wait
in this season of advent? Wait, Strongs
#6960, qavah, that is used in this
verse means to look, eagerly expect, and hope.
There is so much that passes through our brain of sights,
sounds, and images. How is it that we
experience certain things and not others?
Our brain will see and experience those things that we focus in on.
In the same way, we will experience in Advent this season
what we are looking for. Are we eagerly
expecting in hopefulness the presence of God or are we waiting for something
else? I think we can sometimes walk out our
Christian faith without thinking and experiencing His presence.
The angels around the throne of God are in continual
awe. They sing over and over, “Holy,
Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.”
This never gets old for them.
Every moment is a new experience awestricken with His incredible beauty.
Perhaps if we are not living in awe, we are not looking to
the right places with eager expectation and hopefulness. In the midst of the darkness that seems to
surround so much these days, He is right in the midst, shining brightly.
He is doing what He always does, working good into our
lives. Psalm 146 says, “He upholds the
cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives
sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves
the righteous. The Lord watches over
the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and widow…”
Do we see it? Are we
awestruck? Too often we (speaking of
myself) get caught up in the day to day things to do. Our attention goes toward all kinds of busy
work and we loose sight on why we are even doing it in the first place. We forget the bigger purpose of our lives to
live with God, the Maker of heaven and earth.
We settle for crossing something off our checklist of things to do.
Otherwise we have our eyes on problems and difficulties (ours
or others) and loose sight of Jesus in the midst of the waves. We hope to make it through difficulties
knowing that this world is not our final destination. But He
is walking directly toward us with a smile on His face. Let our hearts rejoice, trust and be like
Peter and ask Him to invite us out on the waters with Him.
“Would you come up here… set your heart on things above, lift
your eyes up to Me” sings in the background as I write this J
With our eyes set upon Him in utter awe of who He is, we can
wait… wait for His goodness, eagerly anticipating and expecting Him to shine
forth in all His brightness.
With our eyes set upon Him in utter awe of who He is, we can
wait… wait for His goodness, eagerly anticipating and expecting Him to shine
forth in all His brightness.
Someone once told me, you need the years of experience with
God to really get with your heart who He is.
Time after time, God has met with goodness in the midst of my difficulties. He has been faithful in all situations.
As an example, some 8 years ago or so now around this time,
my husband found out he had a rare eye condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa. It showed up later in his life and happened
very slowly at first so he didn’t notice changes in his sight.
When he was sent to an eye specialist after failing a field
vision test, the eye doctor told him of his condition. He was told that within 5 years he would
most likely be fully blind and he needed to get his things in order because it
wouldn’t be long before he couldn’t work, drive or do anything he currently
enjoys.
Needless to say, we were both devastated about the news. We were beside ourselves for next
steps. In the midst of it, my husband also
didn’t have disability insurance. Ironically I had received a word a month
before the news about his eyes from someone who told me, “God says, ‘Don’t
worry about the insurance.’”
When I received the report of his sight, having a word earlier
from God about not worrying about the insurance helped me to hold onto the
truth that God saw us in this situation.
He had a hold of us. And in the
midst of it, ironically things just came together for us to be totally debt
free.
Seeing God in the midst of us, taking care of us as my
husband’s eyes became worse where losing his job and driving ability came to
fruition, we began to explore our hearts. We had always wanted to foster parent
but not in a position where one of us could be home full time to do this.
As we stepped forward, God opened the door to us for this special little boy that brought
incredible joy into our lives. And as it
turned out, he had a little brother that later needed a home too. Now both of them belong to our family. Our lives are so incredibly rich as a result
of these kids. My husband found new
purpose in being a dad again. Our boys
adore him. He is an amazing dad. Having some direct vision, he sees enough to help them with all their needs. And when we go somewhere and he can’t see
well enough to navigate, the boys will hold his hands and help him with such tender care.
If someone told me years ago that I would be a parent of
young children again at my age and be raising them with my blind husband, I
would have laughed and told them they were insane. Yet when we looked to God and let Him lead
us, He took us on this crazy path that is filled with so much life, goodness and joy.
We can not only see His goodness falling into our lives when we look to Him in the wild storms of life, but
as we put our hands to what our hearts prompt, like Mother Theresa, we can be
part of His goodness to others during their storms. We can be His hands and
feet in the world to touch others with Christ.
“Christ has
No body now on earth but yours;No hands but yours;
No feet but yours;
Yours are the eyes
Through which is to look out
Christ’s compassion to the world;
Yours are the feet
With which he is to go about
Doing good;
Yours are the hands
With which he is to bless now.”
--Saint Teresa of Avila [1]
Lord, we long to see You. Let our lives be filled with eager
anticipation and hopefulness as we wait in this season.
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