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Patience is a difficult thing. When I was young, my family would travel to see my grandmother on a somewhat regular basis. The drive was only ten miles, but for a five-year-old, it could just as easily have been a thousand miles. Before we had pulled out of the driveway, I would begin asking, “Are we there yet?” My parents, who had become wise to this dilemma after raising my four older siblings, devised a way to keep me content for the 15-minute drive.

When we got in the car, my mother would tell me that there were just eight turns until we would be there and that I should watch for them and count them as they came up. Since I have always been a lover of games of all sorts, this was just my sort of thing. My father would start the car and we would drive down the driveway and turn onto the road that went past our farm. ONE TURN. Then we would travel a few yards and turn onto the next road. TWO TURNS. Then in a mile, we turned onto the highway. THREE TURNS. This is where the excitement really began. Before I knew it, we were on turn seven and I could watch for Grandma’s house in the distance. The great joy as we turned into her driveway was a celebration of success that was made greater by the expectation that had led up to it.

As we enter into Advent, we are beginning a similar time of patient expectation. Each of the four weeks of Advent marks for us another turn in our journey toward Christmas. The Church has given us this beautiful season to help us prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus at Christmas.

Sadly, circumstances are such that for most of us, the closer we get to Christmas, the more hectic things seem to get. Every day that passes is announced as one less “shopping day til Christmas”. And in the midst of the rushing and shopping, we need to take a step back and remember what we are rushing toward: the celebration of the birth of our Lord.

Our celebration of Advent is both a time of patient waiting and also of movement. Each Sunday of Advent, another light of the Advent wreath will be lit. These candles provide for us marks in the road that tell us that the Lord is nearer – like the number of turns which told me we were almost to my grandmother’s house.

Each week, we move close to the celebration of the birth of Jesus, who is the light of life. I pray that your Advent will be a fruitful time of preparation and peace and that you will be able to take periods of time away from shopping and decorating and work to prepare your heart to celebrate His birth.