'When the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, 'Abba Father.' So you are no longer a slave, but God's child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.'
One of the reasons we mark the season of Advent, is to remember that people had to wait. Every generation had longed for God's coming Messiah; in every age the words of the prophets had been spoken and repeated, offering assurance that this day would surely come. The eyes of many would never see those promises fulfilled, but their confidence was cultivated through the faith that they placed in these sacred truths. The writer of Galatians had witnessed this fulfillment in Jesus, and it was this that gave him assurance of God's future promise of an eternal inheritance.
We seek to live as followers of Christ in a world that has little time for waiting. Instant credit, immediate decisions, livestream communications seek to eliminate the uncertainty and unease that is generated when things are not communicated straight away. We make a virtue of cutting journey times, making ready-meals, quick service and instant access. We address the unease that time demands, not by learning to wait well, but by seeking to eliminate the need to do it.
Yet Advent invites us to pause and remember that salvation came in God's time, in God's place and in God's way. The waiting and uncertainty were themselves signs of God's sovereignty - the fact that God's salvation did not come on demand was a sign that it lay in the hands of the one who holds time itself within his grasp.
A world without waiting might feel attractive; it might calm my uncertainties with its instant answers and calculated forecasts, but such a world places me at its centre and places control into my hands. This becomes a world whose future depends on one who is frail and flawed and is in no place to offer any lasting hope.
The language that Paul employs may feel overtly masculine, but given the culture in which it was spoken, it offers a profound message of inclusion. Those who wait are offered a promise that was once the domain of a privileged few, but the sonship and inheritance that is everyone's to claim is not some earthly estate, but a place in eternity.
Our waiting assures us that this is no mere human fix, but the everlasting gift of a divine Sovereign. And even though our waiting is surrounded by shadow and darkness, through it our faith can develop even deeper roots, and our hope become stronger.
Eternal God - in a world of impatience that demands answers in the face of every uncertainty, help me to wait well for your Kingdom, assured of its coming.
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