Alongside these feel-good, memory-making experiences, Christmas can also be a time when the deepest unfulfilled longings we’ve been waiting for come into greater focus. We keenly feel the suffering of a family member facing an incurable illness, or the loss of an estranged friend around the table. We wonder at unanswered prayers for our marriages or children or financial security. Could it be this season of waiting is preparing our hearts for something better to come?

The Christmas story is filled with people waiting with expectation. The Jewish people had been waiting for God to speak to them after 400 years of silence—years spent in captivity and oppression—waiting for the redemption and restoration of Jerusalem and deliverance through a promised Savior.

Among these faithful were Zechariah, a priest, and his wife Elizabeth, described as righteous in God’s sight, keeping His commands blamelessly. Yet, their hope for a child had not been answered as they advanced in years and Elizabeth was barren.

Just as it seemed the desire of their hearts would remain unfulfilled, God broke His silence by sending an angel to Zechariah as he was serving in the temple, announcing that not only would they have a son, but that he would play an important role in God’s plan of redemption:

After years of unanswered prayers, Zechariah and Elizabeth could have walked away from God in their waiting, but they continued to seek and serve Him, perhaps reflecting on His past faithfulness to Israel. In our waiting in this season of Advent, we can learn from their example, making space in our busy-ness to reflect on what God has done in our lives.

Traditionally celebrated in the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, Advent means “coming” or “arrival.” This time invites us to look back and to look forward. We look back on how God sent His son to rescue us from our sins. We look forward to His return, signaling the beginning of a new heaven and a new earth.

At Christmas, we remember how God answered His people’s prayers for a Savior in an unlikely way, announcing through angels that His Son would come as a baby to Mary, an unwed, virgin girl pledged to be married to Joseph, a Jew descended from the line of David. Mary’s surprise pregnancy must have upended her and Joseph’s expectations for their lives. Yet, they put their trust in God as they expectantly waited for His plans to unfold.

Like Mary and Joseph, we celebrate the coming of Christ into our lives and the hope of eternity we have because of the baby in the manger. And we wait with joyful expectation amid the darkness of this world because of the promise that Jesus’s return will make all things right again.

Christ has come and He will come again.