Some things just take time.

Anyone traveling this weekend knows that. There was a photo in The New York Times of the terminal at O’Hare Airport in Chicago--it was a vast expanse of deserted luggage waiting to be processed, a veritable sea of suitcases. Imagine the stockyard of passengers to go with the bags, herding through the security checkpoints, and clogging the lounges. Getting anywhere will take a while. Best to just be patient.

Yeah, right.

The trouble is that we have a terrible time waiting. We grow impatient quickly. Steam rises as we boil within, twiddling our thumbs while nothing happens except that the mountain of suitcases grows and grows like a volcanic peak, oozing and boiling with new waves of bags. Time drags and drags down our spirits with it. Holiday cheer turns to gloom with each passing hour.

To be honest, we often do the same thing with God. We want things finished and as they are to be in our lives, the things we believe God to be responsible for. It does not take a genius to note that this is not how things stand. The world stands incomplete and our lives stand incomplete within the world. We grow weary of the struggle to stay afloat, to keep pace, to maintain ourselves and our families in the chaos that is life.

We wonder how Zechariah can be so self-assured that all has happened as it should while he dandles his newborn son named John on his knee. He proclaims the surety that God has saved the world, that the times of trouble are ended, and that a new day of grace, peace, and love has dawned. He crows like a leftover from the heady days of Hippiedom we left behind 40 years ago--

It is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius…

We left it behind because that particular utopia was never quite real and never fully realized the promises it offered. The world still has most of the problems it had back then and many of the same issues of justice and fairness remain unresolved, if the reports my children bring home from school are true.

What is God waiting for? We want God to do something, to show us some sign, and to make things better than they are.

But isn’t that what Christmas is all about? God did do something. God sent his Son to dwell among us.

John reminds us of the transcendental power of that moment. He captures the astounding beauty of the Incarnation perfectly--

And the Word became flesh

And dwelt among us,

And we have beheld his glory,

The glory as of a father’s only son,

Full of grace and truth.

“The glory as of a father’s only son…” Any doting parent can relate to that line. We watch our children grow and become who they are to be. We watch them achieve success in special projects in school, or on the sports field, or as they find their own muse and declare their own identity apart from our own, and we rejoice. We balloon with pride and tell anyone willing to listen that this is our child.

So God rejoices as his Son is born. The heavens roar with the joy of God as Christ is born. God rejoices because his Son will ensure that all the goals of creation itself will come to be. God rejoices because in his Son all the earth is reclaimed as the beloved of God. All wrongs are erased. All hurts are healed. All breaks are mended. In Christ, the old order is finished, the new order begun.

But wait a second, we argue. Hasn’t God seen the world for what it is?

Think for a moment about something most of us pass nearly everyday--the new interchange between I-20 and Bobby Jones Expressway. That moonscape is a perfect analogy for the world--something’s not quite finished yet, and in the meantime, chaos reigns. Just try and drive sedately to the mall--can’t be done right now. And that is the world--oh, there is potential for wonders and miracles, but it is all under construction at the moment. We aren’t there yet. That wondrous glory of God is still muted within a great existential dust cloud that veils creation. Why won’t God clear it? Again, what is God waiting for?

Peter answers our question--

The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.

The Lord is waiting for us. God isn’t sitting around doing nothing. Rather, the Lord is waiting for us because we aren’t keeping up with him. Here comes the hard part. The world is our responsibility as well as God‘s. God created it and placed us within it as his image. We have been placed here as caretakers and stewards of creation and of each other. God made us for this purpose. But something happened along the way. We fell away from that status. God now waits for us to return.

Here is how this plays into the celebration of Christmas. As Christ was born, God restored the bond between us and himself. God enters our existence completely, becoming one with even the most mundane and ordinary aspects of being human. God is in O’Hare’s terminal among the hordes waiting for flights. God is among the throngs who waited until the last minute to complete their Christmas shopping. God gathers with us in the dining room among our family and friends. God sits with soldiers far from home. God enters the slums of Calcutta as Mother Theresa used to do. God sweeps over the earth through the Spirit just as God hovered over the waters of creation when time began. In Christ, God is with us, connected to us in every way imaginable. But God waits for us to use that connection.

God does so because God loves us. A savior has been born to us, the hope of the world is in our midst. But we have to seize the moment. We have to respond. We have to hear the news as good.

Isaiah asked the people who heard his tremendous prophecies of hope and restoration that we use at Christmas, “Have you not seen? Have you not heard?” It is not we who should be waiting for God to act--it has been done. It is God who is waiting for us.

Why keep him waiting any longer?