I started writing this blog during the first week in November, while waiting for the election results-all week.  I am generally a good “waiter”.  I have lots of things to keep me engaged and interested.  I usually have a good book, a knitting project or phone calls to make.  I can wait a long time and not become impatient, except maybe when I am hungry and need to eat.

I noticed that waiting has been a theme for several of Joy’s blogs over the last few weeks.  No wonder!  The Scripture readings for the weeks leading up to Advent are all full of the gloomy warnings and terrifying images that precede the return of Christ to earth.  You cannot help but feel that we are waiting for something big to happen.  With the events of 2020, you cannot help but think that the time is near, and the wait is almost over.

The early Christians thought that the wait would not be long; that Jesus would be back at any moment and make the world right.  The Jews had waited thousands of years for the Savior to rescue them from the tyranny of their daily lives under their various captors.  

Yet, we still wait.  We wait for the time when we will meet Jesus face to face.  But wait!  Have we not already met Jesus face to face?  Doesn’t Christ tell us that we will be among the sheep (rather than the goats) if we give Him food when He is hungry, clothes when He is naked and comfort when He is in distress?  We ask in confusion, “When did we do these things, Lord?” 

His reply explains that whenever we do these things for the least of His children, we do it for Him.  We have met Christ in the faces of our brothers and sisters whenever we extend the hand of love and kindness.  God loves us unconditionally.  We can reflect that love to our fellow life travelers while we wait …

Read Matthew 25:31-46.

Terri