Waiting

Genesis 8:1-12 (NRSV)

But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided; the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the waters gradually receded from the earth. At the end of one hundred fifty days the waters had abated; and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. The waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.

At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent out the raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent out the dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground;  but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him.  He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark; and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days, and sent out the dove; and it did not return to him any more.

I think maybe the hardest part for me had I been Noah would have been not the days of interminable rain, but rather once the rain had ended and those mountains came into view.  The next forty days of waiting while the waters subsided would have been torment I think (poor Noah dealt with a lot more rain than we were taught in Sunday School, yes?).  

But the worst?  Those seven days of knowing that the dove had brought back a branch from an olive tree and that likely it was safe.  But Noah had a big responsibility, caring for all the humans and animals for the earth.  So he waited those seven more days, which must have seemed like an eternity.

Waiting has never been my strong suit.  I'm impatient on my good days, and anxious on my worst.  My temptation would have been to bolt from that ark as soon as the dove returned with that olive branch.  I suspect I'm not alone.  We live in an anxious, restless age.

It is good then I think that the church has worked two seasons into its calendar for waiting: Advent and Lent.  Advent to wait for the light to come into the darkness, and Lent to wait with penitence for the suffering and death of Jesus, and finally for the empty tomb.  It is especially difficult to wait during Advent I think.  Our natural restlessness and impatience is rewarded in stores and malls and offices with all the sounds and visions of a cheery, merry Christmas even before Advent has begun.  We try to ignore that darkness before the light has a chance to come into the world.  It's hard to see the light in fact with all those holiday decorations sometimes.

But Noah teaches us to be patient.  To wait.  To hold out for true hope.  True light.  I'm pretty sure it would have been tough for me.  But the reward, for Noah dry land, and for us the Incarnational reality of God with us is worth the wait.

Patient and loving Lord, waiting is hard.  We aren't good at it and we don't like it.  But you have given us the one gift that is worth waiting for.  Help us us to treasure each moment of waiting in our hearts to prepare us for your coming.  Amen.