Advent is a season of waiting and preparing. For those of us who celebrate, we find comfort in the predictable pattern of lighting the candles of hope, peace, joy, and love knowing that Christ will come again, but for those characters in the story there was so much waiting and preparing not knowing what would happen. Zechariah hears good news and doesn’t believe it at first. He is struck mute not knowing whether he will ever be able to speak again. Elizabeth is giving news that she will bear a child not knowing how that can be possible after so many years of waiting. Mary is giving good news not knowing how Joseph will react or may come.
I have heard so many people express that there is a heavy weight on their shoulders because they don’t know what the world will look like in six months or a year from now. With the rapid rate of technology and AI the world is changing before our eyes and it’s hard to keep that doesn’t even take into account the geo-political global events that change and shift seemingly overnight. When we don’t know what lies ahead, can we still find hope, peace, joy and love?
As I wrestle with that question, I feel the weight of raising mini-humans when I don’t know what the world will look for them. While the uncertainty can be unsettling, what can I teach my child that might transcend this every-changing world?
I find myself coming back again and again to this simple phrase, “We are helpers.” No matter how the world changes, I want to model and teach my children to be the kind of people who reach out and help others. Although I don’t have a clear vision of what the world will look like as my children grow up, I do know that there will always be people who need help.
Maybe that’s the story that’s nestled into the first two chapters of Luke. Zechariah needed help when he couldn’t voice what he was thinking. Elizabeth needed help and Mary came to visit and the child within Elizabeth’s womb jumped. Perhaps Mary even needed Elizabeth’s help in understanding what it means to carry a child proclaimed by angelic message and blessed before he was even born. And maybe all around us this Advent season there are people who are seeking help in finding hope, peace, joy and love. Maybe we are the helpers that remind them, “The light is coming. Just watch and wait.”