Waiting and Hoping

but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40:31

One past November, I found myself waiting in the U.S. Immigration office in Minneapolis. I had been attempting to adopt a baby from Honduras for quite some time. The process had become fraught with complications, and on that day, I was attempting to acquire yet another document that U.S. Immigration had lost. As I sat there reading the signs in the waiting area, written in English, Spanish, and Hmong, it hit me for the first time that the Spanish word for ‘wait’ is the same as the word for ‘hope’…’esperando.’  My situation of waiting to meet my son was still bogged down, but that realization about ‘waiting’ and ‘hoping’ changed everything for me. I was reminded that as Christians, we do not wait in vain. We wait with hope because we have a God who changes endings.

The same thing is true of the word in Hebrew: ‘Vetikvah’ means both ‘wait’ and ‘hope.’  It is the word we find in Isaiah 40:31: “They who wait/hope for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

Advent is a season of waiting and preparing for the coming of the Christ child. But for those of us who belong to him, waiting is not empty activity.  It is expectant of the hope that is coming with the Messiah.

Our partners in Cuba tell us that what they need most now is hope – in the midst of the power grid being down, food shortages, and loss of morale. The Children’s Bible Ministry faithfully offers hope as they minister to children and their families of good news in Jesus Christ.  Their efforts through the children are being multiplied to several generations and the community. Because of this, they are coming to know the hope in Christ, God has new endings yet to be written.

Rev. Deena Candler
Trustee
The Outreach Foundation