Do Not Wait For Me

The Christmas season is traditionally known as Advent, a word that means waiting. It is not only waiting for the first coming of Christ in humility but also for His coming again in power. It is this idea of waiting that has gripped me recently. What do we wait for? What do we hope in? So for this Christmas post, I wanted offer this gift to you, a poem I wrote about waiting. It’s titled “Do Not Wait For Me.”

Do not wait for me.

I can only hold your heart this moment;

It will detain you from your final stop.

Do not wait for others,

Who you hope will give the grace you need,

But only leave you pinned against their souls.

Do not wait for honor

To be given in some grand accomplished deed,

For soon forgotten trophies gather dust and grime.

Do not wait for happiness,

Watching for its delivery at your door,

As if it can be bought and packaged at a price.

Do not wait for love,

Parading forth a feast of gathered charms,

For once eaten, it can’t quell the surging hunger.

Do not wait for sunsets

Or the soaring beauty of untamed peaks.

Hints and whispers are the only answers it can give.

Do not wait for music, art

To lift you up to unseen pinnacles,

For falling back to muddied earth must always come.

But only wait for this:

For silence that will sizzle in the dark,

For words that will resound until the end,

For glory that will blind us with its joy,

For Presence that will mend all that’s askew.

Wait for Him —

Who came cradled

And will come again,

Galloping on warrior steed with nostrils steaming.

Merry Christmas to you all. Thank you for your support and encouragement through 2019!

Bill