Open Advent Window 13 – Advent Candle

Pizzas and Patience

Reflection by James Watson
(Minister of Westbury Baptist Church)

A few years ago, a friend and I decided to buy some frozen pizzas for lunch. By the time we’d got them from the local shop and returned home, we were both hungry. Seriously hungry. I put the oven on, we chucked them in for about 5 minutes, and then went for it.

And I won’t lie, they were disgusting. The cheese had hardly melted, the tomato sauce was still cold, and I don’t want to even think about the slimy pepperoni slices!

I was reminded of this last Sunday as we lit our Advent Candle at church and were thinking about the theme of patience.

Patience. The art of waiting well. It’s not easy. And definitely not at Christmas with so much to look forward to.

And sometimes when we look at the bad stuff in the world, we might also think it would be good if God came to do something about it…NOW! We feel impatient.

But sometimes being able to wait well brings better things.

Before Jesus was born, God’s people had been waiting ages for God’s King to come. They were probably getting quite impatient! But in the Bible, in Galatians 4:4, it says that “when the right time came, God sent his Son.” Jesus came at a particular time in history. It might seem random to us, but God says it was the right time. And certainly, the impact Jesus has had on the world since then would suggest that God was right.

So, as we wait for God to act in our lives and in the world, Advent invites us to trust in his timing and to be patient. Not always easy. But sometimes being able to wait well brings better things. It certainly would’ve helped our pizzas.

Print and Colour a Nativity Scene

Each Advent Day we will provide one page for you to print, colour, cut and arrange in to a Nativity Tableaux.

Introduction to the Printable Nativity Advent Calendar to ColourDownload