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Waiting is hard. I know I have often hated it. Yet, I know there’s a richness to it I am somehow supposed to experience. And, I know vulnerability is essential to true waiting.

I’ve waited for many things which have been fulfilled. Like when I waited to be recognized as valedictorian of my high school class. For years, I was in the top few of my class. But it wasn’t until midway through my senior year that my guidance counselor showed me a ‘1’ next to my name for class rank.

Wow. How magnificent! It had been so fragile, to have this desire tucked deep inside of me. I had been tempted to give up when it seemed like I was going no where with my wish. But, I am glad I didn’t. I learned in that waiting to give my studies my all, no matter the outcome.

I also learned often our waiting brings unsatisfactory fulfillment. When its a goal achieved, like this one, we gain something but we also lose something. We lose the vulnerability of the dream and it often leads to a feeling of disappointment. This is because our vulnerability wasn’t ultimately about a goal, but something far different. It goes to the nature of waiting itself.

We are born into a fallen world. And in this we are born to wait. We wait for the ultimate longing, as a deeply vulnerable, broken humanity. We wait for life with God forever, full and free.

While we may see the end to many seasons of waiting, whether a certain achievement, a spouse, a fulfilling job, a book contract, a relationship to be mended, a child, when our waiting ends we find it has only just begun.

The waiting is in itself our great lesson. And when we realize that, we become helplessly vulnerable. And this is so very hard. We are afraid we will never see an end to our waiting, because the thing is often out of our control. And this makes us vulnerable, or open to the hurt of a crushing lack of fulfillment.

It is here that the waiting becomes a choice. Sometimes we decide it is too much and we give up. We let go of hope and give into despair. Our backdrop of humanity feels as though it will break, so we run away.

In the grace of God, he will often still give us the thing we’ve waited for, but our path could have been so much different. And if we never see our hopes attained, we can often call God ‘not good’ and even lose our faith. Too, we can become embittered and a spewing kind of diseased heart comes through us to the detriment of others.

So, how do we learn to wait well?

We recognize, we are made to wait. This is because we are made for hope and hope is born in waiting. We are made to ground ourselves in promises which leads to the Great Promise–the one we celebrate this time of year.

The fulfillment of all waiting is found in ‘Emmanuel, God with us.’ He came to a waiting, watching people. Yet, precious few were of that faithful legacy of waiting and hoping which spanned 400 years of silence, and really much longer–as far back as the rupture of God’s relationship to humanity.

Many had forgotten the promise. Much of the people of God had aborted the true waiting for redemption found in the Messiah, turning it into one which would fulfill their desires. Their waiting consisted less of leaning hard into God and more of becoming hardened to their own wills.

I don’t mean to be critical for this is a mirror into my own waiting. At times, I have waited poorly, refused to submit to God’s timing and truly be vulnerable. I tried to take things into my own hands and reaped bitterness instead of joy.

It’s a tension, yet vulnerability is once again our dear friend. It shows itself a tender companion which opens itself to God again and again bearing meekness and a hard-earned patience. And it gives us a clarity into the heart of God.

In the waiting, God asks nothing of us which he hasn’t already done Himself. When humanity fell it broke the heart of God. Yet, even here, His love shown forth and He initiated His perfect plan of redemption.

But, what is essential to His plan? Waiting and vulnerability, yes, vulnerability. God had to wait through hundreds of years of idolatry, rebellion, and soured hearts. He needed to do it all with a vulnerable heart which continued to know love, and continued to wait.

‘But when the time had fully come, God sent His son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.‘ The time had to be right for His heart to be made flesh and fulfill all of the prophecies concerning the Messiah.

Yet, God continues to wait. He waits for all to be put in place, to send His glorified Son, this time, in great power and might and set this world right forever. He waits, though the time is appointed. And yes, he continues to wait vulnerably, as His glory is often defamed and His Great Name dishonored and this whole broken world rebels against His goodness, beauty, truth and great love.

He is truly Emmanuel, our companion in it all. He holds us with the tenderest of arms, because He feels the pain of it all. And too, He whispers with the confidence of His strength that our vulnerable waiting will lead to the greatest fulfillment, far beyond all our asking and imagining.