Christmastime is a time for lingering: lingering with friends and family around the story of Christmas, a story of family traveling together and lingering together for warmth in the promise of God, in the hope of God, in a place provided by God. The place God provided was humble, by any means, and it was not where they, or we, would hope to linger:
Smelly place designated for harboring of animals;
Lack of privacy;
Lack of amenities;
Lack of running water, heat and A/C;
Lack of lobby and fireplace to visit with other travelers!
This was not a place where the holy family, or our own families, would want to spend Christmas Eve.
But consider how many times we have had to linger in places and circumstances that were not of our choosing? How many times would we wish for the comforts and accommodations to be better? Perhaps like we experienced at some point in the past? At times we have found ourselves living in quarters and working at jobs that we would not have chosen. Or we may find ourselves a part of a family that is less than perfect, or realized that our lives are less than spectacular, powerful or relevant to the great needs facing the world and our community crises!
Christmas is a time to consider the blessing of lingering – lingering in Hope!
Consider the story of an apostle named Thaddaeus. There is a legend that Thaddaeus was a little boy hanging out, lingering, with the shepherds on that night when the angels visited them in the fields with the Good News of a child, who was to be the Messiah, who was to be born in a manger in the city called Bethlehem. The legend has it that Thaddaeus traveled with the older shepherds to behold this miracle. After the shepherds left, legend has it, Thaddaeus lingered. As he beheld the glory of God in this little babe called Jesus, Mary, the mother of Jesus, smiled and gently placed the baby into Thaddaeus' little arms. All because he lingered. Getting to hold the hope of the world in your very arms!
Thaddaeus’ story doesn’t end there. Some thirty years later, Jesus sees him and there is a strange connection, one that results in Jesus choosing Thaddaeus to follow him and be one of the 12, one of the elite, one of the inner circle to witness the life, death and resurrection of the Son of God, the glory that the world hopes for, and hopes in.
Consider a few others who lingered in the presence and hope of God, after the pomp and circumstance was gone; others who took the time to hang out in the background, in places where they did not find immediate satisfaction or look for personal notoriety:
• the women at the tomb: lingered after the work and witness of Jesus, by all reasonable accounts, was all over!
• Matthias: the apostle that was one of the original 70 sent out by Jesus in Luke 10:1-20, and later is the one chosen to replace Judas as he lingered with the 120 in the upper room just before Pentecost (Acts 1:15)
• Anna and Simeon: after the church had failed to deliver the deliverer, failed to give them the hope and consolation they were looking for,
yet they lingered in the church, in the place of prayer, hoping in God rather in religion! (Luke 2:25-38)
How about you? Is it possible that if you linger, not only after the pomp and circumstance is over, after all others have left and gone their merry ways, and if you linger in faith that the Word of God is love and that God’s greatest desire is to rest not only in your arms, but in your heart,
do you not believe that even after the end you may encounter the glory of God, the hope and consolation made known in Christ?I believe so! I hope so! I know so! And so, I linger!
In the Hope of God through Christ Jesus!
