Active Waiting with Open Hands

During Advent, we spend a lot of time waiting - for Christ’s birth, for the peaceable kingdom, for the light of the world.

But Mary’s laboring in the desert shows us that waiting is not passive; it is hard, active work.

Trusting in God is not only about our words or intentions but about the very real ways we respond to God’s invitation.

Sometimes this looks like reaching out in the midst of exhaustion and despair to shake the nearest date tree, trusting that God will provide nourishment.

Other times it looks like showing up to do the work of justice, even when we’re tired or unsure.

The incarnation began with Mary saying “yes” to God but the verbal assent to God’s plan isn’t enough.

We continue to build the kingdom of God every time we act out of faith.

And, perhaps, if we stretch toward God, even when it feels like we can’t go any further, we will find that nourishment falls into our open hands.

Mary’s active labour in the Quran

A popular image of the Immaculate Conception

Open Hands (Inspired by the Immaculate Conception)

With open hands, I stand in the soft light

Waiting for whatever heaven has the kindness to give

A small thing, really these two open palms

Yet they have learned to expect miracles.

These hands, turned downwards and upwards so many times,

Have cried their way through mornings,

Pleaded in the deep hours,

Blessed strangers without knowing,

Given thanks for joys too brief,

Praised You because the heart

Could not stay silent.

And still, they are only hands

Calloused, tired,

Creased with the dust of long days.

They work, they serve,

They gather and let go.

They write down the stories

You whisper at the edges of thought

They lift the brush and hope to trace

The shape of Your compassion

On the canvas of this world

You set spinning

Before time learned its name.

And so the circle turns

Upward, downward,

Inward, outward

Prayer becoming labor,

Labor becoming prayer

Still waiting

Still listening.

Advent not as a season,

But as the condition of the soul.

This lifelong posture

Of standing still,

Hands open,

Heart awake.

Come, Lord Jesus,

As softly as the dawn,

As quietly as breath

Come into these hands

Come into this waiting

Maranatha!