By Michael Smiel, US Office

As a child, I distinctly remember lying in my bed not far from my brother as we listened to the buzz of late-night work occurring on the other side of the house. It was Christmas Eve and my parents were putting presents under the tree, wrapping some last-minute gifts, and assembling a couple of key larger items so that everything was ready in the morning. The cutting and crinkling sound of wrapping paper placed around things we desired was cause for great anticipation. We could not wait to open our gifts as we contemplated what they might be, but we had to. Christmas is steeped in anticipation and waiting, whether material or spiritual. It always has been.

Through the Old Testament prophets, God promised a Messiah would come and hundreds of years passed before Jesus finally arrived. In Luke 1, Mary is promised that she will give birth to the Son of the Most High (1:31-32). We can only imagine what the anticipation of that pregnancy must have been like for her as she waited. From Old Testament to New, anticipation and waiting upon the Lord is present. Even now, we are waiting. We wait for Jesus’ return.

Much of missions is also waiting in anticipation. Missionaries wait for documents to be approved. They wait for funding. They wait at the airport. They wait for people to believe the gospel and receive the gift of salvation.

Some might equate waiting with doing nothing and sometimes it feels that way. However, my brother and I were not simply doing nothing as we were lying in bed on that Christmas Eve. Our anticipation was building as we contemplated what we might get and we were preparing for the next day by resting. God was preparing people for the arrival of the Messiah over those hundreds of years between the Old Testament and the New. Mary was preparing for the Messiah’s arrival as he was knit together in her womb. Missionaries are preparing to go as they wait and sharing the gospel with people on the field as they wait with anticipation for them to believe. All believers have been commissioned to share the good news and make disciples as we wait and anticipate the return of Jesus.

So, practice waiting this Christmas. Build anticipation as you contemplate the arrival of Jesus in the past and in the future, and ask yourself, “How am I going to prepare for the Lord?”