We often find it difficult to wait. Waiting does not come easy to us. The commercial world cannot wait for Christmas. The carols of Christmas have been piping through our department stores for some weeks now. It is hard to escape strains of ‘Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow’, and so on. The streets of our city, our shop windows are already full of the tinsel and glitter of Christmas. We are well used now to Christmas being dragged back into November. Waiting is out of the question. There is little to be done about that. Yet, to some extent, we can detach ourselves from it all; we can consciously enter into that spirit of joyful waiting that Advent invites us to. That spirit is well captured in our response
to today’s psalm. I rejoiced when I heard them say ‘Let us go to God’s house’. That was spoken by pilgrims as they were setting on pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem. They anticipated with great joy the prospect of arriving at the beautiful temple. This was the joy of expectation. It is the joy of Advent. We joyfully look forward to celebrating the birth of our Saviour and all that his birth has come to mean for us.