It’s wintertime in Chicago, and I’m cold. Long silk underwear, leather gloves, insulated boots, and a wool overcoat have become my attire du jour this season. My husband tells me I’ll get used to it. After a couple of years here, he says, I’ll walk out in the cold without even a coat. “Just have patience.”
Endurance, tolerance, staying power, persistence, fortitude, lack of complaint (my favorite): all words for patience. Paul in Galatians calls it a gift: “the fruit of the Spirit.”
In Advent, Christians are called to patient, yet expectant, waiting. Most of us know the feeling well: those breath-holding moments before the arrival of a baby, a puppy, even a new car. We bubble under the surface with excitement and wrap our arms around our own bodies in an effort to hold our emotions inside.
As we celebrate the first coming of Jesus Christ and anticipate his second coming, my prayer is that we leave our earthbound senses behind and let joyful expectation flutter in our hearts and souls.
This message is adapted from “Breath-holding Moments” written by Terri Lackey in the December 2005 issue of Lutheran Woman Today (now Gather) magazine. Today we remember John of Damascus, theologian and hymnwriter, who died around 749.
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