Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)

When someone sends me a link to a funny video an academic lecture, I quickly grow annoyed with buffering. You know the experience: that little wheel spins. You wait. It keeps spinning. And you wait some more. It just keeps on spinning. And you finally give up and leave the website.

In a small way, that experience of buffering — and our impatience with it — points us to how unready we are for Advent, how we are primed to rush on to Christmas.

More and more, culture shapes us to see little value in waiting. Buffering is unacceptable. Our society rejects Advent as a time of waiting. It is a season of joy (and consumption), and it arrives earlier and earlier each year. The decorations are in the stores, presents are on the shelves, and minty-flavored drinks are available for all. Christmas has leapfrogged Thanksgiving, and Halloween is next. Labor Day quakes in its boots.

Waiting is unacceptable.

Yet here we are in Advent, an entire season devoted to waiting. A season that reminds us that Israel waited on God’s promises, and as Christians we wait — as strangers and aliens in this world — for our Savior to come once again. My favorite Advent hymn is “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” I love the music, but I need the sentiment. It’s slow. It sounds a bit sad. It reminds me that sometimes, we wait. But we wait with hope; we wait knowing that the One We Wait For will most certainly arrive. And He is worth the wait.

– Dr. Jacob Shatzer
Assistant Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies, Palm Beach Atlantic University