There is so much preparation for Christmas. We start in late fall—putting up Christmas decorations, planning events, purchasing gifts, pulling out our Christmas sweaters, wrapping, and all the other things. It’s months of preparation.

In the earlier church traditions, it was quite different. They started a tradition called Advent, which helped God’s people remember how they were waiting for the Messiah to come. The Christmas season was a stretch of waiting.

So, waiting vs. preparation… what is the difference?

With preparation, there are so many things to do. I have so many things to do. Along with our already full lives, there is even more to do, all focused on Christmas.

With waiting, there isn’t anything to do… you just wait.

For thousands of years, God’s people waited for Him to do what He promised in Genesis 3—to send the One who would crush the head of the serpent.

Over the centuries, God sent messages to remind His people of His promises. Scriptures like:

“For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him!”
—Isaiah 64:4 NLT

“And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
—Isaiah 25:9 KJV

He sent these messages to remind His people of His promise of a Messiah—a Savior He would send.

Can you imagine waiting for a promise to be fulfilled for your entire lifetime? Or for generations?
That is what God’s people did. It’s incredible faith and trust in His Word, even when they didn’t see it with their earthly eyes. Their faith and trust are described in the book of Hebrews:

“These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.”
—Hebrews 11:39 NIV

Could it be that this Christmas season we shift our hearts and habits, deny some of the busyness, and spend time waiting and reflecting on God’s faithfulness to His promises?

He was faithful to His thousands-year-old promise to send the Messiah, and He is faithful to what He has said He will do in our lives.

Take time this Christmas season to simply wait on God. Put on some worship music, read the story of the incredible faith of the people in the original Christmas story, and take time to thank God for His incredible faithfulness to us humans. He loves us so much, and He doesn’t just say it—He showed it by sending His Son, Jesus the Christ, the Messiah.