Advent: For What Do We Wait?

When we say we’ll wait
we advent people – for
what, for whom, do we
wait?  For You, O God –
of course – but what
does that mean?  When
I wait for You, what am
I waiting for?  

Rescue?  Only a very silly
woman awaits a rescue
which has already come

Peace?  Already given

Love?  Already bestowed

Perfection?  Already present

You?  Already here . . . and
gone . . . and done . . . and
back again

To die?  Nay

To live?  Now we get
somewhere

so long as I remember

to live in the waiting
to live

to meet in the waiting
to meet

to get in the waiting
to get

to give in the waiting
to be given

Maybe advent’s more like a summer picnic at Grandma’s house than Christmas morning – Christmas morning has us looking forward to the presents as well as The Presence and sometimes (often?) the one outshadows the other.

But a summer picnic at Grandma’s – there, presence is the present, as we all gathered round, forming and reforming into smaller groups of the whole . . . caught up . . . hugged up . . . loved up . . . and out came the memories in story and pictures and we all gathered round to listen and look, to relive and remember, to smile and cry and huddle in . . .

This . . . yes – this together, gathering round time . . . this is what we waited for and it was the who of us all along.