In An Instant…

This post is written to link with Five Minute Friday: write for five minutes on a one-word prompt. The prompt today is “instant.”

It seems that we expect everything today to be instant.

If we want to watch a movie or listen to a song, we can stream it right away. We can have hot food of our choice delivered to our door within an hour. We can order almost anything for next day delivery. Mobile phones and social media mean we can connect with others almost instantly, even those on the other side of the world.

There are lots of advantages to this, but also a big disadvantage – we’re losing the skill of waiting patiently.

Advent is a time to pause and to hone this skill. It’s a time to remember just how long the Israelites had to wait for God to fulfil his promise of sending the Messiah.

There was nothing instant about it. Instead, they had to wait hundreds of years.

Hundreds of years of waiting and hoping, of seeming silence from God. Had he forgotten? Would he not be faithful to his promise? Why was he making them wait so long?

For those who were alive at the time of Jesus’ birth, their whole lives had been spent waiting, hoping that these ancient promises might come true.

We can’t fully understand the reasons for the long wait, but we do that “when the right time came, God sent his Son.” (Galatians 4:4 NLT)

Once the time came there was a lot that happened instantly:

As Zechariah fulfilled his routine duties in the Temple, an angel burst in with the amazing news that his wife Elizabeth, who was barren and too old for childbirth, was going to have a child – one who would prepare the way for the Messiah.

Out of the blue an angel also appeared to Mary, telling her the “impossible” news that she too would have a child, who would be the Son of God.

As shepherds tended their sheep on the hillside, there was another angelic visit, inviting them to visit the new-born Saviour to see for themselves.

And after years of patient and hopeful waiting, Simeon and Anna saw their hopes fulfilled as they got to meet Jesus in the flesh.

There are times when God moves instantly and other times when he doesn’t seem to be moving at all.

Advent is a reminder to wait and to trust, to remember that time is in his hands, not ours, and that his timing is perfect.