Waiting is one of the most difficult thing for us to do.  Even putting it that way draws an underline under difficult, because waiting is not something for us to do—it means we can do nothing just now.

That’s hard. We have to wait until an infant emerges from the womb. We have to wait until the paycheck comes.  We have to wait until our  children get into their college and finish it. We have to wait until God calls us once we are way up in age (I’m in mid -nineties) (lots of waiting)l

Our waiting does not mean that God is doing nothing. God is infinite and in charge of whatever happens. And while we may not know what is happening, God does.

So, wait.  Jesus had the notion as a precocious new teen that He could hurry things along by remaining in the Temple and becoming one of the Pharisees or Scribes live-in students.  His father Joseph and His mother Mary were clear: No.

So, he went with them and for a couple of decades, waited.  And waited. Joseph died. Jesus waited tor a laborer’s job to open. A lot of others in Nazareth did, too. 

Then Jesus left His mother for a month or more and went into the desert with His cousin John.  He waited there until He’d defeated in their roots all the temptations we find ourselves liable to.

Then He went and got baptized, astonishing the Baptist, and began to make clear to His fellow believers that the waiting was over. Repent and believe the good news. .

We have, and we do. And we’re still waiting.