Just one more minute ~ Advent 2017

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
​~ Isaiah 7:14
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"Just one more minute."

​I think if all of us were honest with ourselves we have muttered this phrase at least once in our life.

We are not immune to wanting more time, especially when what we are doing at the time is meeting a need that we have.

Time is always a challenge. When I was just staring seminary, I was going to school in Kentucky and living in Indiana. When daylights savings time rolled around, this woukd really get confusing at times. You see, at that time Indiana didn't fall back or spring forward when it came to changing their clocks, but Kentucky did. So that 8 am class I was attending suddenly began at 7 am on Indiana time, so I got up an hour earlier to leave for school. And then at the end of day, when that last class ended at four pm, my hour drive back home would then have me walking in my front door at 4 pm! It was absolutely crazy trying to manage my schedule several months out of the year.

If you were to ask for "just one more minute" what might it look like?

Saying, "I love you" once more? Offering an "I'm sorry" to someone seeking forgiveness? Or simply holding another's hand just a little longer?

I can only imagine what Mary must have been experiencing as Joseph knocked at door after door. His words to Mary, "Just another minute, Mary. Perhaps this place," as he looked for a place where she might lie down as she was feeling her labor begin.

While the earth awaited the birth of a baby, the arrival was just one more minute away.

The balance between the anticipated arrival, and the need to find a place where the child could be delivered, would soon turn into, "Just one more minute, Mary. Hold on."

The whole idea of seeking ways to create time is the battle we begin the moment we take our first breath. Each day I meet people wanting more time, and sometimes that person is me!

While I often wish for more time, I am reminded that the life of Christ ends with a declaration of, "It is finished." No where is Christ asking for more time.

For many, the birth to death chapters are filled with requests of just "One more minute. One more second. One more moment."

What we do in those minutes says so much about every minute we have lived up that point!

Stay in God's grip!

G. Todd Williams (c) 2017