Waiting

The question many of you are asking is whether Bridgette has given birth to Aidan yet. As of today, Bridgette remains with child. With Brennan coming 3 ½ weeks early, we never expected Aidan to make it this far into July – with his due date being July 22. We just figured since Brennan had come early, Aidan would too. And so these last couple weeks have been an odd type of expectancy. We’ve prepared his room, prepared the rest of the house, prepared our hearts and minds (at least, as much as you can for 4 months of no sleep). And now we wait. Because that is all we can do. This waiting has caused me to reflect on another kind of expectation and another kind of waiting.

Two thousand years ago, when Jesus left his disciples, he promised he’d be coming back. When Paul wrote his letters to churches in Thessalonica and Corinth and Ephesus, he believed that Jesus was coming back soon – maybe in his own lifetime. And as the years rolled on, we’ve seen an ebb and flow in this. Some people have contrived a method for calculating the exact date of Jesus return. And yet, like the due dates of babies, these dates have come and gone. The rest of us do our best to be faithful to Christ, preparing ourselves for his arrival and yet preparing for the future, knowing we are to be about his mission in the world. After all, what good are we as Christ’s ambassadors if we only sit on our hands and wait? So instead, we are caught in the tension between expecting and protecting – ourselves for the future. And sometimes, when we’re honest, we wonder if he actually will come…

Well, for a week or two, I’m living this tension in my own home. I’m excited and scared at the same time. It’s not a bad place to be, swimming in that tension. I think, being excited and scared about Jesus isn’t a bad place to be either…