As I type this bloggage I am also in a ‘Virtual Waiting Room’, waiting to see if I am able to buy some tickets to see a singer in concert. The idea (a good one if it works) is that those in the Virtual Waiting Room are assigned a place in a virtual queue and when that place becomes available I will be able to select from the remaining available tickets.

At the moment the message says, “It will be your turn soon.”

It has been saying that since the ticket office opened 20 minutes ago.

I am reminded of our fruitless attempts to buy tickets to watch an event (any event) at the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. We entered our details and waited. And eventually were told that we were unsuccessful.

But there would be a second ballot and all of those who were unsuccessful the first time would be at the head of the queue the second time.

So we entered the second ballot. And waited.

And were unsuccessful.

But the Paralympic tickets would soon go on sale, and we thought we surely ought to get some of them so we entered the ballot. And waited.

And were unsuccessful.

In the Virtual Waiting Room there is a bar (no not that sort of bar, a long line on the screen) along which creeps a blue line showing that it is checking my ‘Waiting Room Status’. The blue line fills the bar and there’s a pause at the end, each time with the hope that I might be next in the queue. But each time it goes back to the beginning. Just like our fruitless attempts to buy 2012 tickets the anticipation builds each time, only for hopes to be dashed.

The season of Advent is about waiting. Anticipation. Hope. Because we know that Christmas Day will happen on 25th December we perhaps lose some of how it felt over 2000 years ago when people were waiting for God to send his Messiah, the Christ, the One. Many times their hopes were raised when different rebel leaders took on the oppressors of the day and people wondered if he was the One. And each time the blue line reached the end of the bar and their hopes were dashed. It wasn’t now.

“It will be your turn soon.” promised the Prophets.

But it never seemed to happen.

I wonder if that’s how you’re feeling about a prayer you have been praying for years and there doesn’t seem to be an answer. Or perhaps you have been waiting for a promise from God to be fulfilled and it hasn’t happened yet.

**Doorbell rings, I had to leave my desk, aaargh, what if I get to the front of the virtual queue right then? Ah… it was just a delivery. Check status. “It will be your turn soon” (26 minutes and counting)**

Among the many different messages of Advent and Christmas is this: God’s timing is perfect. Waiting is an aspect of faith. Don’t give up. The answer may not be when you were expecting it, or what you were expecting, but it will be God-given so you can be confident in it.

If you doubt this, have a look at Luke 2:22-38…

Be blessed, be a blessing*

 

 

*Did I get the tickets – you’ll have to wait to find out!

( 51 minutes and still waiting)