Looking around over the last few weeks and seeing the sparkly lights, hearing the Christmas music and checking the diary each day to work our what we need for which party today, you wouldn’t know we are in a season on waiting.

Advent is the time when traditionally, the people of God wait for Christmas and remember Mary waiting to have her baby.

I’ve been developing a theory about Advent for a couple of years, and here it is.

Culturally, Advent is November. Waiting to put the decorations up (or not!). Waiting for the radio to start playing the Christmas hits. Waiting to open the Advent calendars. Waiting for the shops to have all the Christmas stock out. Waiting for a red elf or two to run a mock in the house. In November, we are waiting.

Culturally, Christmas starts around the 1st of December. And it peaks on 25th, when the presents are opened and the turkey is carved.

This is different from the traditional season of waiting, where Christmas doesn’t start until darkness falls on 24th December.

I’m not saying this because I think it’s wrong. I just think that the church calendar is out of step with what’s going on around us. After all, how many of us are waiting until tomorrow night to do anything Christmas-y? I’m certainly not!

I’m not good at waiting. I’ve done a lot of waiting this year, and I don’t think I did it all that well. I was pregnant for most of this year, and I am my little lad in my arms right now. I think about Mary and her waiting. Very different to, and yet timelessly the same as, my waiting.

Tomorrow night, the church season of waiting comes to an end. Sparkly season reaches a crescendo. By Wednesday morning, it’s Christmas.

Spare a moment to think of Mary. Sweet, gentle, unassuming, brave Mary. Neither partying away nor preparing to host the masses at a candle lit service. Not wrapping presents. Not tweaking a sermon last minute. Not working out food timings. Not making hundreds of Christingles.

There is nothing wrong with any of that stuff. It’s just not what Mary was doing. She was just waiting for her baby. Quietly. Powerfully. Simply. Just waiting and trusting the promise.

So, in and amongst it all, give yourself a minute. Take the pressure off. Think of Mary.