Thursday of the Second Week of Advent
Be still before the Lord
and wait patiently for him. Psalm 37:7
I set out my work on my desk and open a folder to see my mother’s poem peeking out at me. I had forgotten that I had tucked it away there, carrying it home from a recent visit.
She wrote it the day we visited the art museum, verses about waiting and praying that captured like a snapshot part of a day we spent together.
Now, as I sit with her poem, an understanding unfolds for me that waiting is not empty time that needs to be filled. It has its own shape, its own rhythm, its own purpose. And I realize I do not always wait well. It is not that I am impatient when waiting—although sometimes that is true. It is that I have undervalued the act of waiting in and of itself. What would waiting well look like?
If a person can wait patiently—or impatiently—then all sorts of waiting must be available. I can wait energetically, gracefully, ironically. I can wait with a sense of humor, or purpose, or style. I can wait in silence. I can wait in laughter. I can wait serenely, hungrily, openly.
So many ways to choose. So many ways to wait for God. So many ways to be expectant.
Copyright Anne E. Kitch 2013
