Understanding Advent: A Season of Waiting and Hope

When the air cools and lights begin to sparkle around us, we know the Christmas season is drawing near. Songs on the radio call it “the most wonderful time of the year,” with a whirlwind of festive parties, cozy evenings baking cookies, and the rustle of wrapping paper. For many, this season is a time of joy and celebration.

Advent: A Deeper Meaning

For believers, these weeks leading up to Christmas hold a deeper meaning. We call this special time Advent. The word itself comes from a Latin term meaning “coming” or “arrival.” It’s a season set aside for heartfelt anticipation and hopeful preparation. Advent is our chance to pause and remember God’s incredible faithfulness in fulfilling His promise to save us. It’s a time to reflect on the miracle of Jesus’s birth and what it means that our Savior came to us as a humble baby, born to ultimately give His life for us.

At its heart, Advent is a season of waiting. And if you’re anything like me, you spend a lot of your life waiting for something. Waiting for a traffic light to turn green, for a text back from a friend, or for the doctor to call your name. We wait for challenging things, like the results of medical tests, and for wonderful things, like the birth of a baby or the first day of a long-awaited vacation. We wait for our biggest dreams to come true and for our most fervent prayers to be answered.

What is the True Meaning of Advent?

The Christian life is, in many ways, a life of waiting. We live in the “in-between”—the time between Christ’s ascension into heaven and His promised return. We wait with hopeful hearts for Him to come again and make all things new, to see His glory revealed, and to live forever in His presence.

Honestly, I’m not always the best at waiting. I can be impatient. I want things to happen in my way and in my time. Waiting can feel like wasted time between where I am and where I want to be. But the Bible encourages a different perspective. It speaks of waiting as a beautiful and positive practice, especially when we are waiting on the Lord.

• “The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD” (Lamentations 3:25-26).
• “Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!” (Psalm 27:14).

Finding Hope in the Waiting

The season of Advent reminds us that there is purpose in our waiting. As we trace God’s promises from the Old Testament to their beautiful fulfillment in the New, we see a pattern of His perfect timing. We see how He meets His people’s needs at just the right moment, proving His Word can always be trusted.

In Lamentations, waiting is described as an act of seeking God. This means there is important work for our souls to do while we wait. As we wait for Him to move in our lives, answer our prayers, or return in glory, we are called to seek Him. We do this through prayer, by immersing ourselves in His Word, and by actively looking for His goodness and glory in the world around us.

Hopeful Expectation

And we wait with hope. Think of a child on Christmas Eve, too excited to sleep, eagerly anticipating the joy of Christmas morning. That’s the kind of hopeful expectation we can have as we wait for our Heavenly Father. We can anticipate the good things He will do because we know His character and His unwavering love for us.

Yes, waiting can feel hard. But it is a fundamental part of the Christian walk. As we embrace this short season of waiting during Advent, let it be a sweet reminder of what it means to live a life of hopeful expectation. We don’t just wait; we wait on a good and faithful God who has already given us the greatest gift of all. Jesus!