The Question in Advent

Advent comes with a question that burns in the soul.  It is dark.  It is quiet.  And we have the inevitable uneasiness and doubts that must be worked through. 

Will the King actually come?  Will the Savior arrive in time?  We must experience it ourselves to be convinced, yet each time, the question hangs there again.  Will spring come to whatever winter I am frozen in?

The only way I have figured out how this dilemma gets resolved is in the walking through my days.  There is no other way for our hearts to be assured than to build a record of His attentiveness and faithfulness.  We walk.  We stumble sometimes and our faces are down.  We see progress and often days unfolding that we wouldn’t consider the “answer” to our prayers.  And yet He will be at work if we give Him time and room. 

One wonderful thing about getting older as a believer is that the track record begins to get built.  We see that even if the situation didn’t unfold to the script we would have written, He has answered and worked.  It is a glorious realization. 

Advent gives us that opportunity again to sit in the quiet and gaze upward, to slow down and remember my story and how He has worked.  And I trust forward and celebrate and rest in His unearned care again.