Why our wait in exile can be the very best place to find hope
By Dean Collins
The season of Advent is a season of waiting and of expectation. It seems like we have all done more waiting in 2020 than usual. We’ve been waiting for a vaccine that we hear is coming but not yet here. We’ve been waiting for this election cycle to end, but it lingers, at least in Georgia. We’ve been waiting for restrictions on gatherings to subside, but instead they are extended. We’ve been waiting for Christmas season to give us some joy, yet we are looking at a different kind of Christmas season where many of our traditional ways of celebration are risky or prohibited. And we wonder when it will end.
The whole story of God involves much waiting and more exile. The first exile and season of waiting came when Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden for not following and trusting God’s plan and promises. Other notable exiles include the forty years in the wilderness longing for a promised land. God’s chosen people didn’t do any better than Adam and Eve in obeying God and trusting his promises, and so eventually they experienced the fall of Jerusalem and exile to pagan lands.
Exhausting wait
Jeremiah’s words of lament are powerful and sad. And in the middle of his wailing there is exhaustion: ”My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.” I’m guessing you’ve been there at some point as well. You’ve known the longing for something to get better, to be over, to change its course, but sadly it doesn’t. Instead all you can see is more treatments, more debt, more quarantine, more grief, and your endurance is pushed to the limits. In fact, you are sure you are beyond the limits of what you can handle.
Jeremiah wasn’t yet finished with his lament, but right in the middle of it something happened. He prayed that God would remember his affliction, suffering, and wanderings. But then he remembered a precious and profound truth. He knew this truth his whole life but sometimes in suffering we tend to forget important, even eternal, information.
Divine wait
Jeremiah remembered that someone else is also waiting. Almighty God is waiting for us to embrace his steadfast love. Every morning, whether cloudy or full of sunshine, God’s love is there for us. His mercies are available. His faithfulness is constant. Suddenly Jeremiah was thinking clearly. While all of the world waited for the Messiah to come, Jeremiah had new clarity to wait quietly, trusting in the salvation of the Lord.
During this season of Advent we commemorate the coming of a long-awaited Savior to a manger in Bethlehem. Now we linger in the middle space, waiting for the return of a Savior King who will one day make all things right and new. Every broken place and person will be healed.
Our father in Heaven with eagerness looks in and down on us. He waits for us to trust his faithfulness. He calls us to remember what he has already accomplished in Christ and what he promises to provide for all our needs here in the middle of our wait. It is okay to grieve and to let your lament reach Heaven, but don’t forget to pray and wait expectantly for the presence of Jesus to come now and carry you into a place of grace. This season will pass. God is with us. He will come again in this season and he will one day return in glory.
This season will pass. God is with us. He will come again in this season and he will one day return in glory.
The familiar Christmas hymn “O Come, O come, Emmanuel” reminds us of the anticipation and hope that can accompany us in the waiting. Click this link and listen to it and rest today in God’s promise.
Your time with God’s Word
Lamentations 3:18-33
Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash
