"The Waiting is Worth It!" -- Luke 2:25-32

"The Waiting is the Hardest Part"

Oh baby, don't it feel like heaven right now?
Don't it feel like something from a dream?
Yeah, I've never known nothing quite like this
Don't it feel like tonight might never be again?
Baby, we know better than to try and pretend

Honey, no one could've ever told me 'bout this
I said yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

The first question of the day … “Who is that band?”

Yes, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. I know, I know, you never know where I am going with a message. Honestly, when I am preparing, I don’t either many times, but in preparing this week, this song popped up earlier in the week, and I kind of brushed it off. Then it came back yesterday, and I thought a little more about it and then one more time, so I started preparing to use it, asking the Holy Spirit, “Am I really supposed to use this song,” well I am talking about it now, so I guess I got the go ahead.

The song's title is “The Waiting is the Hardest Part,” and with Christmas, there are so many people, young and old, looking forward to Christmas Day. Did you ever think about how many people in the world are looking forward to Christmas? I did some research this week, and there are 160 countries that officially celebrate Christmas, and another 20 have Christmas celebrations. There are only 195 countries worldwide, so that is over 92%.

Now, a question I have is this: are we waiting for Christmas for the right reason? I agree that waiting for something you want is hard, and if it takes a long time to come, it is really hard. But what is worse is waiting for something that you really want, and when it finally arrives, it is not as exciting or fulfilling as you had hoped.

Today, we will talk about waiting, but waiting for something that will exceed our expectations, thoughts, and dreams … and so the waiting may be the hardest part, but “The Waiting is Worth It.”