When the angel appeared to Mary and told her that she would give birth to God’s son, she asked the obvious, “How will this be?” The angel told her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, so the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God.” That really wasn’t all that helpful. All Mary knew was that she was a virgin. And now she was being told that she would give birth to God’s Son and that the Holy Spirit would work out the details.

The angel continued, “Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child in her old age,… for nothing is impossible with God.” In other words, this was going to take awhile. First Mary’s cousin Elizabeth was going to have a baby. Then, by some mysterious method, Mary was going to become pregnant. Then, after nine months the baby who was to be the hope of the world would be born. But it would take another thirty or so years for him to grow up into that role.

You know, it’s often the waiting that’s hard. When you’re barely holding on to hope, a week is a long time. And a year, or 30 years, is forever. It’s hard to keep our hope high when there’s a long wait. We want an immediate solution. But remember, our hope is not in the calendar. Our hope is in Jesus Christ. He sets the schedule and his timing is always right. And, amazingly, we may actually benefit from the wait.