“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God… And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
Romans 8:23-25 ESV
As Paul writes in Romans, no one hopes for what they already have. Hope is born from absence — from what is not yet.
Advent invites us into that space of unease. Not the frantic, consumerist kind of unease that pushes us from distraction to distraction, but a sober coming-to-terms with reality once the noise is stripped away.
Ninety-seven years ago, on 2 December 1928, Dietrich Bonhoeffer preached in Barcelona and opened his sermon with these words: “Celebrating Advent means learning how to wait.”
He continued, “Not all can wait – certainly not those who are satisfied, contented, and feel that they live in the best of all possible worlds. Those who learn to wait are uneasy about their way of life, yet have seen a vision of greatness in the world of the future and are patiently expecting its fulfillment. The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come.”
To hope is to acknowledge a vacancy — a lack, an incompleteness — and to admit that it’s one we cannot fill on our own.
We often treat waiting as an unproductive or passive posture. Yet waiting is the one space where we can unravel our scattered priorities, dismantle our misguided schemes, and genuinely let go. This deceleration of the self — in a world that constantly commands us to accelerate the self — is nothing short of revolutionary. It becomes an act of spiritual liberation, as we unhitch our hope from our own self-propelled progress and rediscover its source in the activity and faithfulness of God.
TRISTAN SHERWIN 
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