The Christmas I was 10, we decided to travel from Michigan to New Jersey to spend the holidays with family. This was not the first time we had made the 11 or 12-hour drive. This was the first time we had decided to travel via Greyhound.
We packed our suitcases and took the presents from under the Christmas tree, carefully placing them into a large, securely-taped cardboard box. We were scheduled to arrive the night of the 23rd. Instead, a blizzard descended and we found ourselves waiting for transfer options amidst a sea of humanity. We saw the clock strike midnight, the beginning of the 24th, standing in line in a packed bus station.
By the afternoon of Christmas Eve, we had finally arrived. But when we went to pick up our suitcases, they were nonexistent. Also missing, most importantly to my 5-year-old sister and me, was our cardboard box of gifts. What’s Christmas without the presents we had been eyeing under the tree for weeks?
On Christmas morning, we played with our cousins’ gifts and I made up stories for my sister as to why Santa was delayed (yes, I know it doesn’t make much sense, since we had seen those presents loaded onto a bus and knew they were bought ahead of time, but it seemed comforting to make up something).
Then, there was a knock at the door. Outside stood a Greyhound representative with our suitcases and, gasp, the lost cardboard box of presents! I imagine now that this poor man must have been missing celebrating Christmas with his own family, but to us, he was an angel. The gifts came just in time.
Writing to the Galatians, Paul says, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children” (Gal. 4:4, NRSV). During Advent we anticipate a Gift that came and will come in “the fullness of time” or, perhaps we could say, “just in time.”
I’ve experienced gifts that came “just in time.” There was the diagnosis of my mother with cancer, in time for treatment and a full recovery, the arrival of my future stepfather into our lives, in time to teach me how to drive and give me the support and freedom I needed to leave for college, the invitation of my aunt to come to La Sierra when my other plans fell through, the call from SECC to go to Chula Vista as a pastor, then to the Seminary, Yucaipa, Victorville, and back here to La Sierra, the unexpected Adventist Singles’ Connection invitation to go to a Christmas carols concert in LA in 2013 from the man who would become my husband, the moment I was telling my gynecologist I thought I needed some kind of treatment and the nurse announced I was pregnant, and on and on.
But I, like you too, have experienced times when the needed gift didn’t show. The diagnosis didn’t come in time for the relationship or loved one to be saved, an angel didn’t show up just in time to stop the truck from plowing into the car of a best friend, the fertility treatments of a loved one didn’t result in the live birth of a baby, and year after year, the longed for significant other hasn’t materialized.
What do we do with the waiting and the longing? Perhaps it may help to pause on the word that comes at the end of that same “fullness of time” sentence. Adoption.
A week ago I got to celebrate the adoption finalization of the sweet almost 3-year-old now-permanent son of my cousins. Our joy, along with that on the faces of about 75 other adoptive families and about 120 adopted kids from San Bernardino County, was palpable.
The story of Christmas tells us that we all, along with our questions, doubts, and confusion, have been adopted as God’s children. When the Gift shows up just in time, or while we’re still waiting for it or for Him, we can cry, sometimes with tears of joy, other times in sorrow, “Abba! Father!” With the Gift who came just in time comes our adoption from slaves to sons and daughters, heirs of the ultimate Gift-Giver. The best is yet to come, still on its/His way.
In these 24 days before Christmas, we’re going to be hearing reflections from members of the La Sierra University Church community on searching, wondering, wandering, finding, getting lost, looking for direction, turning around, and starting again. We’ll get to enter into moments of being drawn, disturbed, redirected, and/or delighted by “the one who has been born king of the Jews” (Matt. 2:1 – stay tuned in as well to our season’s new sermon series, “Honestly, Advent” where we’ll be diving deep into the story of the Magi’s search).
Raewyn Orlich is grateful to be spending her first Advent season as associate pastor of discipleship and nurture at the La Sierra University Church.