Waiting (Luke 1)

What does it look like to have hope in a world that doesn’t always feel hopeful? Advent reminds us that we’re invited to hope in what God has done and what God is going to do. But hope is often hard to find, misplaced, or misunderstood. Hope is one of those gritty, active, deep words that culturally we’ve gutted. Too often, we’re sold a shallow version of something rich and beautiful. There’s a whole lot of waiting and hoping and longing and silence in the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth. They’re old. They’ve been faithful their whole lives, righteous, doing what they’re supposed to do. And yet, they don’t have the one thing every good Jewish couple was supposed to have: a child.  In addition to their waiting, scholars estimate that by the time of Jesus, it had been 400-450 years since God had last spoken to Israel through the prophet Malachi. Is waiting evidence that God isn’t working or has forgotten us?  Or, could it be an invitation to lean into what God is doing? In those moments when we cannot see what God is doing, when the waiting feels like being forgotten or the silence feels like absence, we’re invited to lean into our relationship with God. And perhaps, in the waiting, our faith just might grow.