Everyone wants it, but once you have it you can easily lose it. The young rarely have it and the old usually have plenty of it. Once the time comes, you will know when you have achieved it. 

What is the answer to this riddle?

Patience.

How appropriate that this is the word that strikes me as we enter into the third week of Advent. The pink candle of joy is lit in the Advent wreath and signals to us: “We’re almost there! Emmanuel is almost here!” But not yet. Wait. 

Waiting is not something we as humans do well. I try. We all try, especially at this time of year.  Enter the Advent calendar. Weeks before Advent began, my social media feeds were filled with reels of a seemingly endless variety of Advent calendars. From traditional calendars filled with chocolates and candies to fancier ones containing toys or puzzles — even contemporary versions with skincare products or books — there’s an Advent calendar for everything! Admittedly, the shopper in me was sucked in a wee bit. But then, the content creator would inevitably open every calendar window swiftly, effectively defeating the purpose of the Advent calendar. Rather than waiting and anticipating the arrival of the Gift, the world seems to tell us you can have all the gifts you want right now.   

But some things are worth waiting for aren’t they? Maybe it’s not so much the waiting that is the hard part. Maybe the hard part is the space that the waiting creates. In that space my mind can think about all the things. At the end of my waiting will the result be good? Bad? Ugly? There is an element of the unknown when I am waiting for something. Uncertainty is uncomfortable. And who can be patient when you’re uncomfortable? When I’m waiting on God, often my impatience takes over and then I “take over.” I can do all the things myself. After all, I am an independent woman. God isn’t working fast enough and I can just help speed things along. Yup, I hear you giggling at me, God. 

God is patient with me. So patient. Always. So the least I can do is to be patient with Him. Patience is not just something to be given but rather something to be grown. And, daily, God helps me to grow it because I have learned that the fruit of that patient waiting is God’s guaranteed goodness. How can I be sure that goodness is coming? Because it already has. Two thousand years ago Christ came into the world as a vulnerable little baby who changed the world with truth, beauty and goodness. Then and now. 

This gift of Love Incarnate is definitely worth the wait. And so I will choose to be patient. In the space that waiting provides I can lean into the uncomfortable uncertainty because …
 
We’re almost there! Emmanuel is almost here! But not yet. Wait. 

Patience. 



​Aurea Sadi

I flew through life half-asleep,
oblivious to eternity.

A battle within my heart,
where Evil claimed more territory
in the places that were once whole.

Abominable flags were raised,
propped up by my worldly remedies.
Toxic patchwork was all I knew
to escape the misery.
Sometimes I would feel
rays of light on my face,
but never long enough to appreciate
their sweet song of hope.

The monsters dug their claws deeper within.
“Pathetic,” they sneered. “There’s no escaping this.”
“There’s no hope for me,”
I repeated in twisted unison with them,
“I may as well stop trying.”
Yet there remained a small part
never yielding to the dark.
With outstretched hands
I cried out into the universe’s vast expanse:
“Is anybody out there?
I’ve met my end.
I can’t go on.”
From the other side,
a familiar voice rang back to me in reply.
“My daughter,
I never left you.”
How precious these hearts must be,
if a war for them rages across the centuries.
From the cross, a promise of transformation
reverberates across time,
a free gift for generations,
beckoning every soul to bloom once again.



​Vanessa Noujaim