Waiting Witnesses

In 2007, a world-class violinist named Joshua Bell stood in a Washington, D.C. subway station during the morning rush hour and played his Stradivarius violin for nearly forty-five minutes. More than a thousand people walked past him on their way to work. Most never slowed down, a few dropped spare change, and only a handful stopped to listen. Just days earlier, people had paid hundreds of dollars to hear the same musician play the same music in a concert hall.

The music was extraordinary, the musician was world-class, and the value was unchanged. What changed was the setting. Greatness was hidden in plain sight.

We often miss the love we are not looking for, and if we miss Jesus’ love, we miss everything. Advent reminds us that love is not sentimental or shallow. It is sacrificial, steady, and enduring.

Scripture tells us that love is patient and kind, that it protects and perseveres, and that it never fails. This kind of love is not rooted in emotion alone but in the very character of God.

Love did not arrive loudly when it entered the world. It came lowly, wrapped in humility, and it came looking for us.

In Luke 2, Simeon and Anna recognized what so many others overlooked. They were not drawn by spectacle or status; they were watching for promise. They waited faithfully, worshiped attentively, and when they saw Jesus, they knew God had kept His word. Love was found among the faithful, not the famous.

In Matthew 2, the Magi traveled from far away, drawn by a sign of power in the sky. They bowed in worship, offered their treasures, and returned home changed by what they had encountered.

The Magi saw power. Simeon and Anna saw promise. But love, revealed in Jesus, fulfilled both.

This story invites us to examine where we are looking for love. Love cannot be sustained if it is sourced incorrectly. If love comes from approval, it eventually fades. If love comes from success, it eventually collapses. But if love comes from Jesus, it remains.

That love is not only meant to be received but lived. Love reshapes our pace, softens our hearts, and gives us endurance. It changes who we are before it changes what we do.

And love is always meant to be shared. Loved people love people, not perfectly, but purposefully. Love does not terminate on us; it travels through us as grace, kindness, and witness.

You do not earn this love, and you do not manufacture it. You receive it. And once you do, you begin to look for it rightly, live it authentically, and give it freely.

Just because you cannot see the dawn does not mean the light is not rising. Hope sustains us, peace frees us, joy lifts us, and Jesus, in His love, saves us.