And the bus came early.

 This week I did something I don't do very often.  I wrote a letter of complaint.

Recipient of said missive - the local bus company

Reason - the bus keeps coming early.

The other thing I did which I don't do very often is I wrote this blog at 8am .  Normally you don't get much sense out of me before 11am and three cups of coffee 😁 But today the early bus happened again.  And as I sat in the car with the boys at the bus stop ( bus leaves from 2 miles down the road from our house) looking at my watch I heard the whisper of God saying ' and the bus came early' ....... and I knew I had to come home and write this straight away.

Advent is a time of waiting.  Ive written before in these blogs about how hard it is to wait, how the people of God waited centuries for their Messiah etc etc.  But recently I've realised that its also incredibly difficult if things you are waiting for arrive too early.   Think about the premature babies being delivered today - all those stressed and anxious parents wishing and praying that their child would NOT arrive.  The huge dangers of prematurity are well known.  Being on time - at the right time - is crucial.

Several times this term we have arrived at the bus stop five or ten minutes before the appointed time to find the bus has already left.  Its SO annoying.  It involves an hour of unplanned disruption to my day.  If we are lucky we can follow the route of the bus and perhaps catch up with it further down the line.  But more often than not I end up having to take the boys into school.  Its a 20 minute drive there and 20 minutes back in rush hour traffic.  Mostly Im in my pyjamas with my coat over the top ( cos when they do catch the bus I get home in ten minutes and go back to bed! 😁)  For me its not a disaster as Im not working at the moment ( furlough) but for the parents who are depending on a reliable bus service it has to be a nightmare.  There are kids waiting for the bus, standing in the cold, who have to text someone when the bus doesn't show up and make alternative arrangements.  And if the bus is early at our stop then it is early along the whole route - so lots of people will be missing it just because they arrive at the stop on time and the bus doesn't.

A while ago I heard a sermon about disappointment and God explained to me that DISappointment is the opposite of APPOINTMENT.  We feel DIS appointed when something that we thought was going to happen doesn't happen.   God is a God of appointments.  He has a diary on His desk full of appointed times for things to happen - times for people to be saved, healed , restored.  Times for new jobs to start and for relationships to begin.  Times for prayers to be answered, finances to be sorted, demons to be routed and plans to come to fruition.  He does not disappoint.  He always keeps His appointments.  So if we feel DISappointed we need to look at our expectations, tell the enemy he is a liar, remind ourselves that His timing is perfect and settle in to wait.   We dont like waiting - and sometimes the wait is indeed long and hard.  But we have to trust that God knows what He is doing -if things come  too early things get missed.  People get missed. 

I wonder how Mary felt as the time for her delivery approached.  When Joseph came to tell her they would have to take a three day trip to Bethlehem right at the time she was due to give birth, what did she pray?  If it were me Id be praying that the baby would come early.  In those days Im sure predicting the due date was even less accurate than it is today so there was every possibility that she could have given birth before they had to set off on the journey.  Travelling with a new born would have been much easier than travelling when 40 weeks pregnant. She might even have been excused from going all together I suppose.   I hazard to guess that Mary was massively frustrated that, as the day of their trip to Bethlehem approached, Jesus was showing no signs of arriving.  She probably ran up and down the stairs a few times and ate a hot curry and lots of pineapple 😁  ( my three boys were all overdue - I can totally imagine how she might have been feeling)  But if Jesus had been born early then He would not have fulfilled the Biblical prophesy.  The shepherds would not have visited and we would not have our favourite Christmas carols. Herod's army might have found the baby and destroyed him along with the thousands of others......  too early would not have been in the plan.  I'm sure Mary and Joseph, not understanding how the arc of history was dependent on the timing of this birth, just felt exhausted and frustrated and impatient.

This Christmas, whatever you are waiting for, don't be tempted to induce an early labour . May the grace and patience of Jesus and the glorious timing of God be yours and may disappointment be banished to be replaced by strengthened faith.