Eric Heath - November 28, 2025
Many years ago, our family took a vacation to Disneyland. Among the many things unique to that part of the world (at least in relation to Abbotsford) is that when you press the button to cross the street at an intersection, a speaker emits a male voice every 2-3 seconds saying “WAIT…WAIT…WAIT…” until the WALK sign illuminated. As a dad, I found this a very helpful tool, as for many months afterwards, whenever one of my kids was demonstrating even the slightest bit of impatience, I could break out my best repetitive robotic sounding “WAIT” until they became upset with me. I’m a good parent.
However, if we are honest, few of us are very good at waiting, especially for something we are really looking forward to. When I have something exciting on the horizon, like a Disneyland vacation, or a dinner at a nice restaurant, or even an elusive quiet day at home with the kids all at school, I can easily find myself viewing all of the other parts of my life as nuisances that just need to be done with so I can get to the good stuff.
This weekend is the first weekend of Advent. The Advent season consists of the four weeks leading up to Christmas, and the word itself comes from the Latin adventus, which means “arrival”. It is the time on the church calendar where we intentionally consider the first Advent – the first arrival – of our Lord, when He came to this world, taking on flesh as a helpless baby in preparation for the Father to work out our salvation through Him.
However, it is also a time when we intentionally look forward to – and WAIT for – His promised second Advent; the day when He returns to make all things right, to consummate His eternal kingdom, to judge the living and the dead, and to truly and finally reconcile all of God’s children to their heavenly Father.
Even in writing out those words, I feel some of that sense of impatience. This was clearly something that was felt, or at least anticipated, by the apostles. In his second letter, Peter addresses the “scoffers” whose impatience leads them to ask “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3:4).
Peter’s response is to call for patience, but patience with a purpose. In 2 Peter 3:8-9, he writes “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
There may be times in this life where our day-to-day existence feels like a slog. All aspects of our lives may feel like chores; boxes that we are checking off the list to “get to the good stuff”. Peter’s reminder to us is that our patience is derivative of God’s patience, and His patience serves the purpose of giving many daughters and sons the opportunity to enter into His glory through the mediation of His Son. If you have already accepted this gift of salvation, know that it was His patience with you that allowed for this to happen.
Therefore, whether in your everyday life, or in the light of eternity, as we enter this time of Advent, let His great patience for you motivate you to worship in the waiting.
“When we the children of God are crushed under the heavy affliction of this world,
be reminded that it’s weightless in comparison to the eternal measure of God’s glory
We have lost our eyes for the unseen
and have swallowed the false hope of the visible
We must realize the empty grave
and revel in the certainty of His resurrection with assurance of renewal,
considering it worthy to suffer for the faith
So we will worship while we wait.”