Live Expectantly

Expecting.

What do you live expecting? Some people have abandoned their expectations while others show up every day expecting. Living expectantly sharpens the senses, pushing a soul closer towards life’s cutting edge, and heightens every experience.

Living expectantly keeps our eyes and ears open, like a father sitting alone in his chair in the darkened living room alert for headlights or the sound of tires on the drive letting him know his daughter has returned home safe and sound.

I remember vivid snapshots of moments from when I was expecting my first child.

Watching the stick change color just weeks after my wedding. Oh boy, do I remember that moment! I wanted children, desperately, but this wasn’t the plan – not yet. This baby wasn’t scheduled according to my timing. Until that moment, I thought I had life under control. God had His own plan and I was thankful to have nine months to prepare.

Then, the slow-motion moment when I hung up from speaking with my doctor. I was only eight months along but my body needed this baby out now. Head to the hospital, he’d instructed. We’ll induce labor. I glanced around my apartment knowing that life would completely change before I returned.

Finally, nineteen hours of labor. The rush of excitement welcoming my son into the world. Alone with him that night watching him breathe, snow forming a blanket on the city, I panicked. I’d grown accustomed to expecting. I’d focused nine months on preparing for labor and childbirth. That was over. Now what? Now I beheld new life. Held new life in my arms.

Humanity, too, is expecting. We’ve had years of warning to prepare for Christ’s return. At some point, His plan will interrupt all others, coming upon us like labor.

For an expectant woman, nine months can feel like an eternity. Even though she knows it will happen, it can feel like she is waiting for a moment that will never arrive. Even when labor begins, the reality of a new life bursting onto the planet will not hit her until she holds the child in her arms.

The world is like a woman in her last trimester. Pregnant with God’s plan for so long, weary and wondering if eternity will ever truly arrive. Jesus tells us the signs that labor has begun and every mother from Eve to Mary to me knows that once labor begins it takes over and there is no way out but through. It will all be worth it for the new life at the other end – if we have prepared.

These are things to speak about this Advent season. As we hear reports of wars and rumors of wars on the horizon, remind people that the world is beginning to feel the pangs of labor.

When others mention Mary and her baby remind them that that baby is due again only this time, He rides in on the clouds. Speak of the need for preparation, not for giving and receiving gifts but for the time to come.

It will come.

Some in Jesus time were so expectant, they were ready for Messiah. Luke wrote in 3:15-16 esv, “As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

Others had abandoned expectancy and they missed the One for whom their hearts had longed.

Just as the Messiah arrived in His time back in Bethlehem, so He will arrive at the end of the age. Just as mothers read “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” so we should be studying God’s Word because we are expecting His return.

Speak of these things with others this advent season, loved ones. Make the most of every opportunity. Live expecting Him and you will live in the abundant life He came to provide.

How do you live expectantly? I’d love to know. I respond to every comment and reply to every email. You mean so much to me, you who read these thoughts I write. We’re a team, don’t you know?

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How to live expecting https://t.co/fXR9uy09NQ #Jesus #Advent

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) December 12, 2023