Brian Lucas
December is here, and that means it is Christmas season. There are so many markers of the season: songs, sights, smells, and activities. All of these things together form traditions for us, certain cues and moments we look forward to in this season. Many of these traditions are things we wait for and look forward to. We have to wait to open presents. Some have been waiting and anticipating breaks from school and work for vacation or family visits. We wait for so many things in life, and it seems like even more in December.
In Hebrew, one of the words for waiting is “yachal,” which also carries a connotation of hope. Yachal means: “wait, or cause to hope.” It is related to hope and faith. A trust in God’s good promises that will be fulfilled. Psalm 130:7 says “O Israel, hope [yachal] in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.” And the prophet Micah declared, “But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait [yachal] for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.” (Micah 7:7, ESV) And so we, too, wait and trust in the Lord.
In the Christian church, the tradition of waiting on the Lord is practiced in the season of Advent. We look forward to and wait for the celebration of the birth of Christ on Christmas; and we remember the waiting of the faithful in Israel looking forward to the arrival of the Messiah (or Christ, in Greek) fulfilled in Jesus’ birth; and we look ahead with hope now in anticipation of the return of Christ to deliver His church once and for all. We remember and identify with those who hoped in God, and in celebrating the moments of fulfilled hope from the past, we find comfort now and hope for our own future.
When we read through the Gospel accounts leading up to Jesus’ birth, we find many people in need of hope. Joseph finds out his fiancee is pregnant, but an angel appears to him to encourage him to wait and trust in the Lord’s plan: “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.’” (Matthew 1:21-23, ESV) Jesus means “the LORD is salvation” and Immanuel means “God with us.” We read of Zechariah, an elderly priest who waits for a child; Simeon, a prophet who waits to see the Christ born before his own death; Mary, who awaits the miraculous birth of this child who will be Son of the Most High; Anna, a prophetess who has been worshiping and fasting waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. These are only a few of those in need of hope. We, like these people, need this Jesus who saves and is the presence of God with us.
And so, this season, whatever it is you are going through, may you find hope in the waiting. May you look to the Lord and find the fulfillment of your hope in Jesus this year. Merry Christmas.
Brian Lucas is co-lead pastor of Pax Christian Church
