Advent - Day 1

Hyperion’s (and Friends) Celebrate Advent

Day #1 – Thoughts on Advent

I thought I would start with the word Advent itself, since many people (myself included) do not know what it means. If you have grown up in church you know about the four Sundays of Advent, and maybe you had one of those little calendars growing up, where each day you peel back a little square of cardboard to see the picture or words inside and get a treat. (Usually the treats somehow disappeared by Day 5, but you used the same calendar for years.)

The word Advent comes from the Latin Advenio or Adventus, itself a translation of the Greek word Parousia. They all mean, “to come,” and back when originally coined referred to the second coming of Christ.

Put aside any religious beliefs (or disbeliefs) you have for a second and think about the sheer scale of what early humanity waited for. There was no email, no Internet, no post office, no telephone, fax or wire. One did not travel by airplane or car. You went somewhere by walking, or, if lucky, by donkey and then later horse.

In other words, for the most part, humanity has spent their time waiting for literally everything. This is even more magnified when viewed through the prophetic lens of waiting a Messiah, a savior. Time for that was not measured in minutes, hours, days or even years, but in lifetimes, many of them.

Now think about your own life. Think about how angry you get with an extra ten minutes added because of traffic, a drive-thru line that seems to take forever, or the time you spend on hold trying to get through to your bank. Yes, we are all busy, and we want the express line full of people using the Visa Scan and go cards, our dentist to be ready when the appointment time says, and the meeting to get over now, because we’re hungry.

I am not trying to minimize that. But maybe just for a day, think of what people who came before you waited on to come, and how long they did so. Is it really going to kill you to gain a fresh perspective, and realize whatever you are waiting on, others have waited longer, and for more important?

If nothing else, be glad you’re not them.

Lesson #1 - We all have to wait for something