Waiting for the Lord

 

I would think that most of us have had to ‘vigil’ at some time in our life . . . to wait . . . to yearn . . . to hope in God’s victory without knowing what the victory will look like for us, or how soon it will come.  And it’s always a new and different life that we live after we have truly vigiled, whether in families or alone, in congregations, with friends, or even sometimes with strangers.

To “vigil” is to wait in hope; to wait in joyful hope if we can, or sorrowful hope, or terrified hope; but with hope that clings to the confidence that God is in charge, and it’s God who will bring the newness of life.

The Israelites were compelled to Vigil through the night we call Passover, waiting for God to deliver them from their misery in Egypt (Exodus 12:37-42). They didn’t know what the delivery would look like or what their new birth as God’s child would entail.  They did not yet have an imagination of “Waiting for the Lord,” but they would very soon.  And then in perpetuity they were to stir up that imagination and remember each year by spending a night waiting.  Christians, too, spend a night each Spring waiting with the disciples for the Lord’s victory over death.  They too didn’t know precisely for what they waited, but for them too, it was both death and birth (the Crucifixion and the Resurrection).

Mid-summer is an interesting time to be reminded of the compelling vigil that we live each day as we wait in joyful hope for the victory of God’s compassion in our broken world.  Let today be a real vigil – an opportunity to remember what wonders God has done for us and will do for us tomorrow even has He holds us in His hands this night.

Give thanks to the LORD, for God is good.  For his mercy endures forever.  (Psalm 136)