Waiting, and Making Space

Here we are, in Advent. It's a season of waiting, really- a season of anticipation and expectation and pregnant hope. Over the last couple weeks, I've come across a few reflections that have really spoken to me, as I am moving through Advent waiting on two babies- the one inside me, and the One inside Mary.

From Mama Monk:

Who else knows the power and the longing of waiting for the Messiah than the young woman who waited as he formed inside her? Perhaps, I’ve been thinking, Advent is less a season of journeying or meditation, and more a season of pregnancy: the active work of preparing space.

There are seasons to pregnancy: There’s the hard first season of carving out room in one’s body for the child. In that season we somehow hunger and purge all at once. We build an organ (the placenta) that not only exhausts us but provides life for the child whose form is taking shape. In the second season we gain control of our stomachs again, if only to eat. We eat and eat and nourish ourselves, like bears hunkering down for some hibernation we don’t understand. We feel our bones and muscles moving, making space for the hard work of pushing our child out of us. We sit still enough to feel the small twisting, the hiccups of our two-pound eggplant baby. And in that last season, we ripen. Our bodies expand to the point of explosion. Our baby kicks into our organs with their human size feet. And eventually, the child forces its way out of us. We give in.

How is Advent like pregnancy? I like the idea that in this season we are holding something precious, making room for a child to be born, suffering and celebrating, eating and aching, growing and allowing the child to grow in us.

From The Meaning is in the Waiting, excerpted in Christianity Today:

Pregnant waiting is a profoundly creative act, involving a slow growth to new life. This kind of waiting may appear passive externally but internally it consists of never-ending action and is a helpful analogy for the kind of waiting that Advent requires.

For many of us, Advent is such a busy time with all our preparations for Christmas that the thought of stopping and sitting passively is simply impossible. Advent, however, does not demand passivity, but the utmost activity: active internal waiting that knits together new life.

From the Sojourner's blog, This Advent, What Are You Waiting For?

Jesus, we believe, changes everything.

But while the incarnation sets into motion the final redemption of the cosmos, the curse still rages on. While God’s people welcome the kingdom in all its manifestations, it has not yet come in all its fullness.

And so we wait.

I'm full-term, and waiting- knowing that this baby could easily not come for another MONTH and still be in the range of "normal". I'm trying not to be impatient, even with two friends due after me delivering in the last 2 days. Even with the packed bags sitting next to the door at home, the bassinet set up next to my bed, the swing and bouncy chair in the living room, us rearranging the cabin furniture, people reminding me "any day now!". We're making space, waiting, expecting, anticipating, knowing I, like Mary, will not be pregnant forever, and we will get to meet this long-awaited son.

Sometimes it does occur to me, though- I wonder if a bumpy donkey ride would help move things along?