The Advent season is a “can’t wait” season.

People can’t wait to start listening to Christmas music or to decorate. Some can’t wait to open presents and others can’t wait see presents opened. The “can’t wait” nature of the season is seen in lots of ways, including Christmas Eve. Think about it: We celebrate on the eve of Christ’s birth more than even the day itself.

Yet that’s what Advent is all about: waiting. The word Advent gets at this. It means “coming.” People had to wait thousands of years for Christ’s first coming and we and our ancestors in the faith have been waiting for thousands of years for his second coming, despite our prayers of “Maranatha – come quickly, Lord Jesus, come quickly.”

So, how do we wait well? How do we wait with patience and hope and joy, trusting like children who see the presents under the tree, that just as Christmas is coming, Christ is coming?

Prayer is how.

The Psalms, the prayer book of the Bible, has one of my favorite prayers in Psalm 27. Here is how it ends: “Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.”

So, in the midst of this often-impatient season, I challenge you to pray that you will wait for the Lord. He is coming.