Today is Saturday in the first week of Advent. The psalm reminds us that blessed are all those who wait for the Lord. I have never been fond of or good at waiting. I grew up in a non-liturgical denomination and we didn’t have Advent. But we had waiting. I couldn’t wait for Christmas to come. Christmas was such a fun, family time. We were poor but my parents went all out to get us gifts. By the time I figured the Santa thing out, I began to wonder where he stashed all of our gifts. Then I noticed that around Thanksgiving, the coal bin at our house was locked. I was tempted to break that lock but I never did. Christmas was coming and I had to wait.

Christmas Eve was murder. We didn’t want to go to bed but had to or Christmas would not come. That’s not to say that we slept much. Once I heard my mother coming up the steps and I ran out of the room to inquire if Santa had come. No, she said, it’s only 12:45. Go back to bed. I did but 2:00 was fair game for getting everyone up. That was the job of me and one of my older sisters. Karen and I had coughing fits and the need to use the bathroom. Flushing made some nice noise. Finally, my parents couldn’t take any more coughing and flushing and they would get up. They would go downstairs and tell us when we could come down the steps, that is, if all five of the children were up. Once again, we had to wait on my oldest sister who preferred sleep over anything else. We threatened her with cold water more than once. When we were all awake and the parents gave the go ahead, we had to come down the steps from the youngest to the oldest and wait on the steps until they took a picture. I hated that. One year I had been sledding the day before. We had this steep hill behind us. You got on your sled, went down the hill, over a small bridge, and into our neighbor’s yard. At that point you made a sharp turn to the right, so that you didn’t hit their house. This year there was a sheet of ice on the snow. Unlike Colorado, where I worked for five minutes to make a snowball out of that powder they call snow, our snow was wet. The ice on top made me go faster than usual and when I made that sharp right turn, the sled went to the right and I, with my face skidding across that ice, went straight. In that year’s picture, the kid in the middle had a bright red face. I think my face was brighter than Rudolph’s nose that year. Eventually, the wait was over and we enjoyed the rest of the day. So much for waiting.

The readings for today tell of a God who is gracious and answers our needs. He gives us food and drink. He binds up our wounds and heals our bruises. He sustains the lowly. Holidays can be tough on some folks. Jesus’ heart is moved with pity for the troubled and abandoned. He is a good shepherd. He calls us to be like him. May this Advent be a time of lifting up those who are troubled. Never fear – our Lord will come. Blessed are all those who wait for the Lord.