Are we not constantly in the disposition of waiting? During the course of a day, waiting for the water to boil, waiting for people’s replies, waiting for a ride. In a lifetime, waiting to begin, waiting to figure out things, waiting to finish. And then, we wait again. “What we shall be has not yet been revealed…” (1 Jn 3) Ultimately, we are always in wait, for God and for ourselves.

Who am I and who is God? What shall we live, even as we live now, as we wait together for each other. Where shall we meet? And yet knowing, we go there together.

The waiting of the Magi, the waiting of Mary, the waiting of Joseph. They all waited from different places, journeying different routes, and then coming together in the same stable, where God has come, awaiting them.

And then the little Jesus, finally arriving, begins his wait anew. A waiting that is most discrete, simple, and silent– the “in between” that is childhood. Hidden in the littleness of a child, what great patience, what strong humility, to stay ordinary, unheard, and in wait for the revealing of his own destiny—what He came to the world for (Jn 18:37).

I marvel at the thought that when Jesus was a child, He was most like us in the sense of being ordinary human beings. He did not preach, did not work miracles, and was not famous. He was just a child, just like us. God has truly stooped down to us, to the simplicity of being in wait—subjected to the length of time, the slowness of the flesh, while holding in patience the burning desire of the heart, and all the while hoping and trusting in God for the time of accomplishment. He waited to grow up, to be fully a man, and to meet the “acceptable time”, the “appointed time,” to fulfill what God willed for Him to be.

He shows us to wait with childlike faith. To journey through the process as weak, limited, and dependent. And that is fine, because we are in the time of being a child when we are waiting for the fulfillment of the will of God in our lives.