Waiting for Christmas

I consider myself to be fairly competent at a number of things.  Waiting is not one of them.

     These days we measure time in nano-seconds.  We get irritated waiting for our fast food that doesn’t come fast enough. We get frustrated waiting in the ten-items-or-less fast lane at the grocery store, which doesn’t move fast enough. We are a culture of “impatients.” 

     In truth a lot of our life is spent waiting.  So what should we do while we are waiting? 

    The Jewish people had been waiting for 400 years—waiting for Messiah to come.  Jesus didn’t come into a world that was all peaceful and rosy with nice, soft, golden hay and a glowing halo around his head (although it makes for a lovely Christmas Card).  Jesus came into the world during a time when upheaval, persecution, and revolution was in the air. This was a time when His people were oppressed, marginalized, and enslaved.  And they were waiting for a rescuer.  They were waiting for Messiah; and God sends John the Baptist to teach them how to wait.  He was a cousin of Jesus Christ, born just 6 months earlier than Jesus. 

    Check out Luke’s account of John the Baptist’s helpful advice in Luke 3:7-11. “So he began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” (I don’t think he is going to make it on the motivational speaker circuit with that kind of language!) “Therefore, bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’, for I say to you that from these stones, God is able to raise up children for Abraham.  The axe is already laid at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” 

    Wow.  Tough language, by a tough guy.  What is he saying?  He is saying to these folks, “Listen—religion doesn’t mean Jack diddly!”  “Oh—Abraham is my father!”  “Well—I’m a good Baptist!”  “I was baptized Catholic.”  “I was at a camp once…”  John the Baptist says, “Wait a minute!  If you really believe in God—if you really want to get right with Him, prove it!  Show it!  Get with it!  Produce some fruit!  You are a tree.  A tree is supposed to produce fruit.  If it doesn’t produce fruit, it is going to get chopped down and thrown into the fire!” 

    Those are tough words!  If I heard those words, I would ask the question that the crowds asked him—“What do we need to do?”  That’s what the crowds asked—look at the next verse.  He is going to teach us how to wait. 

    Luke 3:10-11 says, “And the crowds were questioning him, saying, “Then what shall we do?”  —And John would answer and say to them, “The man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise.” 

    If you have two coats—give one to someone who doesn’t have a coat.  If you have plenty of food—share with someone who doesn’t.  So John the Baptist simply says, while you are waiting; get giving. 

A little more recently, there was a man who found himself doing business in a developing country.  He was there during a winter blast, and it was freezing outside. He had on his long tailored coat and some nice wool gloves.  On the streets there, he saw a little boy who didn’t have any warm winter clothes.  His hands were bare, and he was so cold he was shivering.  So the business man looked at this little boy and took compassion on him.  He took off his gloves, and he gave them to the little boy. 

     He slowly took the big gloves in wonder and put them on his little shaking hands.  And a smile just kind of grew on his face until he was absolutely beaming. And he looked up at that business man, who was looking down at him with an irrepressible smile. They were both filled with this great joy! 

     As the little boy went on his way down the cold streets, a friend joined him.  He was looking curiously at his friend’s new gloves that had been given to him by the stranger.  So the little boy turned to his friend and took off a glove and gave it to him.  And now a smile grew across the face of the first boy’s friend.  And now the smile on the first boy’s face grew even bigger than when he received the gloves himself.  And the business man still looking on —wow—now he is really smiling too!

     John the Baptist knew that there was going to be another little boy who was going to come on the scene who was going to say something like this:  “It is much more blessed to give than to receive”.  This little boy was going to grow up and be a man. And then this little boy was going to give His life away.  Then He was going to call others who followed Him to give their lives away too.   

     So—what do we do while we are waiting?  Get giving.

What do you have two of?