are you expecting?

... look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel."  [Isaiah 7:14]

Advent is waiting.  

For those of us who have been pregnant, it is a waiting also.  

A time of preparing.  

A time of promise.  

A time of impending change and a venturing into the unknown.

In my mother's day, you would not ask someone if she was pregnant-- instead you would ask, "Are you expecting?"  

Sounds kind of quaint today, but it is a lovely way of holding the impending birth of a child as something so wonderful as to need special words that hold tremendous meaning.

Today's passage [Isaiah 7:10-14] made me ask myself, "Am I expecting?"  

Am I approaching the celebration of the birth of Christ with real expectation of promises fulfilled, of impending change and a venturing into the unknown?

[image © Astroid/dreamstime.com]