Advent in a Three-Second World

Three seconds.

That’s how long the average person will wait before leaving a website that won’t load.

Count to three right now … and notice how short an amount of time that is. And yet, for most of us, it is too long to wait.

I thought of this stat the other day when reading the story of Jesus’ birth in the first chapter of Luke. The words spoken to Mary by the angel Gabriel were full of incredible promises to her:

“You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendents forever; his kingdom will never end.”

– Luke 1:31-32

Mary’s yes to God in this moment was a testament to her faith, a symbol of her courage, and belief that God would do as he said.

And then 30 years passed. Forget waiting for only three seconds. Mary waited for 30 years! And even after 30 years of waiting for these promises to be fulfilled, the greatness Jesus embodied was not like any type of greatness Mary (or anyone) would have expected.

The season of Advent allows us to practice waiting in a world that emphasizes productivity. The season of Advent allows us to recognize that our addiction to immediacy can sometimes cause us to miss Immanuel – God with us.

And waiting is something that defines so many of the stories we read in Scripture.

Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years for their promised child.

Noah waited an entire year for the flood waters to recede. Imagine one whole year cooped up with all sorts of stinky animals – it likely felt like 10 years!

In 1 Samuel we read about Hannah, barren for many years, waiting patiently for the Lord to open her womb, having to wait many years for her son, Samuel, to be conceived.

And in the New Testament we learn of Simeon and Anna, two people who had waited their entire lives for the Messiah to arrive, both getting to witness his arrival when Jesus was presented in the temple in Luke 2.

It is in the waiting that each of these people did that their faith was formed, their trust in God’s promises tested, their witness amplified throughout the ages.

And so we, too, are given the opportunity to wait. To trust that God will fulfill his promises – maybe not as quickly as we would like, but in ways that are far greater than we could ever produce through our own efforts.