Waiting Expectantly
December 1, 2022
Across our network, phones are ringing more urgently than ever with families seeking housing assistance to prevent eviction or find a place to stay. Each inquiry holds a story that deserves to be heard and individuals who deserve to be met with compassion. Yet present requests for help exceed our capacity and resources to meet them all. As we contemplate the needs, what then should our posture be?
The Advent season invites us to enter into a posture of waiting expectantly, much like the people of Israel who had to wait with longing for generations for the arrival of the Messiah to meet their deepest needs. Our waiting might resemble that of children to open their presents on Christmas morning—anxious, impatient, restless—and that’s ok.
While we pray and serve, we look up and lift hands to heaven, longing and even crying out for the dawn of the Morning Star in our lives and in the lives of our program participants. We are waiting on the Lord to provide affordable housing units, Neighboring Volunteers and operating funds so that we can lean into the vast needs we are encountering.
We look for Jesus to show up in ways that only He can through his limitless presence, resources and grace. Advent is a time where we get to reorient our hearts around the One who has come, and will come, who shows up in our day.
During the weeks leading up to Christmas, the church I attend sings these words together by the children’s band, Rain For Roots:
We are waiting
We are waiting
We are waiting for You
(Hallelujah What a Savior)
Waiting is hard. Waiting takes work. Yet as this song celebrates, in our waiting we can shout “Hallelujah, What a Savior” because He will show up, perhaps in times and ways we least expect.
So look up, my friends. Christmas is almost here. He is coming again.
Jonathan Matías
National Director of Development