[Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. You can read my full disclosure here.]
Note: This post is part of the Two Weeks of Waiting Devotional. To return to the table of contents for the devotional, click here. To read this as a downloadable ebook, subscribe below.
As a teacher, the end of this school year this year took quite an unexpected turn. When the Coronavirus global pandemic hit, nothing turned out how I — or anyone else, for that matter — planned.
Although in reality these are trivial matters compared to the sickness, death, and sorrow others were facing in the world, I couldn’t help feeling bad for the senior class. Those seniors had spent four long years of high school — really, even longer — waiting. They were waiting for senior spring break, for prom, for the senior all-nighter. They were waiting for their last day at school, last goodbyes, last spring sports season. They were waiting to finally be able to use the excuse of senioritis, to celebrate at the highly anticipated senior assembly, and of course, to walk across the stage at graduation. They had been waiting.
And suddenly, in the blink of an eye, in the form of an unexpected, middle-of-the-night text notification from the governor, the wait was over. There would be no last day of school, no senior all-nighter, no prom. The wait was finally over, but not at all what they had anticipated.
The same thing has probably happened to you, too, in one form or another. You can finally take a pregnancy test. Negative again. The phone finally rings. Bad news. The test results finally come back. It’s worse than they thought.
That’s the problem with waiting for things here on earth: There’s no guarantee that the end of the wait will bring good news.
There is a rather famous but often overlooked man in the Bible, Simeon, who was also waiting. We don’t know how long, but he was waiting for something completely different: the consolation of Israel (Luke 2:25). He was hoping to see Christ Jesus, having been promised by the Holy Spirit that he would indeed see the Christ before his death. His wait ended in joy as he got to hold baby Jesus, and he praised God: “For my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the sight of all nations.” (Luke 2:30-31)
Simeon spent his life waiting to see the Christ. Somewhere in between waiting for vacations and graduations and babies– blessings here on earth– we have forgotten the most important thing we are waiting on, the thing that is guaranteed to always bring good news at the end of the wait, the thing that Simeon, too, was waiting for. We forget that we are waiting to see the Christ.
It’s funny, isn’t it, that we could possibly forget. We can’t seem to forget about the other things we’re waiting for on earth. These things fill our minds and occupy our thoughts day and night. There are even articles out there dedicated to helpful tips on surviving “the two week wait” for women wanting to be mothers. We can’t seem to think of anything else for two weeks but the possibility of finding out we are pregnant!
There’s nothing wrong with waiting for these things, and this is not meant to make you feel guilty for desiring and hoping for something you want right here, on this earth. (Jesus doesn’t abandon us on earth while we wait for his return– far from it. And so he has a lot to say about times of waiting on earth, too. We’ll get to that.) But let’s start these two weeks with a reminder of what we’re really waiting for, the one wait that is guaranteed to never end in disappointment or despair.
Further study + reflection
How often we forget that our time on earth is really just a time of waiting for Christ to be revealed. Remember in prayer the verse, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18) When we fix our eyes on Jesus, may we remember that these present times of waiting + suffering are nothing compared to the glory + joy that Christ has planned for us.
Note: This post is part of the Two Weeks of Waiting Devotional. To return to the table of contents for the devotional, click here. To read this as a downloadable ebook, subscribe below.
Looking for more encouragement during your difficult season of waiting? Join the Contentment + Chaos community to get my FREE Two Weeks of Waiting Devotional!
