Most of us are so used to the Christmas "season" beginning after Thanksgiving that when Thanksgiving is as early as it can be (like this year) everything seems a little off. We have our star already lit in our front window, but Advent doesn't start for another six days. I uploaded my Christmas playlist to my iPod and iPhone yesterday, but it is technically a few days too early. (But I still put them in my shuffle on the way to work this morning!)It seems really odd to be waiting for Advent. That's like a double negative or even an oxymoron of some odd kind or another. Advent is about waiting.
But it isn't time to wait yet. But it's time, we want to say. Thanksgiving is past. Let's get on with it.
Ah, but that other word for Advent- patience. Actually it is a year-round word.And I can have a difficult time with it. Advent will get hear on its own schedule. Christmas will follow as sure as night follows day. Not on our schedule, but on its own. God's time. Kairos, not chronos.
Kairos (καιρός) is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment (the supreme moment). The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time, the latter signifies a time in between, a moment of indeterminate time in which something special happens. ...While chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative nature. ... In the New Testament kairos means "the appointed time in the purpose of God", the time when God acts.
--Wikipedia
I guess that means I should take this as a week of kairos, a week UNTIL I have to wait. Perhaps it is a week to learn patience by staying in today and looking for the special quality of God's time when something special happens.
I have a hunch that time is now.
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