Watching and Waiting

I went to buy stamps in December. By any account this was a silly move, especially on a Saturday. I did have the presence of mind to go to our small post office hidden in the back an Ace Hardware. Seeing only one gal in line as I passed the corner display of yule logs, I was feeling brilliant. That was before I was told that the particular stamps I needed for a mailing were completely sold out.

So, I hurried over to the big post office in downtown Littleton. I arrived at 11:57 and joined the line. Not that I’m counting, but there were fourteen people in front of me.

How do we wait?

Some wait by staying busy. They got on their phones to attach themselves to someone not in their miserable situation. They may have been multitasking, getting some things done while “wasting time” in a line. More likely, they called a friend refusing to face 30 minutes with nothing but their own thoughts. Stay occupied and it won’t feel like waiting.

Some wait by complaining. Nothing seems to build unity out of diversity like a common foe. Thank God for the United States Postal Service. Why are there only three windows open? They sure are chatty up there! Do you see the guy with a dolly full of packages! Focus on your discontent and maybe the time will pass more quickly.

I decided to wait by watching. I watched people. I watched the guy two people up stepped out of line for ten seconds to look at some packaging options displayed on the wall. He even pointed his back foot toward the line like a ballerina as it to say “I still have a spot.” We all knew what he was doing but that didn’t stop the woman in front of me to move up forcing him to squeeze back in to his place. What a waiting game we play.

A lot of my watching, however, was not of people but of time.

12:07 I made it out of the lobby into the mail room.
12:12 I’m half way there, only seven in front of me and I get to rest on the large island counter.
12:16 I get excited to see a couple move to the window that I had counted as two singles!
12:19 I’m at the window placing my stamp order.
12:22 Victory! I walk out past the line slowly enough to count the poor mortals still waiting.
There are fourteen.

Waiting and watching.

We cannot watch unless we wait, but waiting doesn’t guarantee our watching will be any more than killing time. I can see that longs gaps without any sense of an advent, or coming of God into my life leads me to any of the above. I may stay busy, complain, watch how others respond to the silence, or get caught up in counting the time. I suppose that, like me, the Church has done all of these over the years.

But, as Thoreau once said, you can’t kill time with injuring eternity.

So, with eternity in mind I seek to be more intentional in my watching for the coming of God in and around me. If God has already revealed Himself in the lives of an old priest and his wife, a young small town girl and her fiancé, a guy and his family who had a stable, and some crusty shepherds then He is probably already doing things around my humble circumstances.

I’m watching for it.