I was “pondering” this morning how easy it is, especially this time of year, to get caught in a rut of daily living. Get up. Go to work, take care of family obligations, or run errands. Eat dinner. Take care of one or two household chores. Go to bed. We find ourselves “going through the motions.” Sometimes, we do the same thing with Christmas. Haul out the decorations. Set up the trees. Decorate the tree. Decorate other things. Buy gifts. Bake. Attend Christmas parties. Plan. Plan some more. Make sure there’s some “Jesus” in the schedule.
John the Baptist had spent his whole life preparing the way for the Messiah’s coming. He preached that One greater was coming—One whose sandals he was not worthy to untie. You might say he spent years focused just on Christmas.
Then Jesus came. And now, in Matthew 11, John sits in a dark prison cell. This is not the place he expected to be. This is not how he thought things would turn out.
And so, in the dimness of that disappointment, he sends a question to Jesus: “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” (Matthew 11:2-3).
It is a startling question from the man who first pointed us to the Christ of Christmas. But Advent reveals something essential here: faith is not the absence of questions—faith is the courage to ask the right ones.
John could have clung stubbornly to what he had preached for years. He could have stayed silent and preserved his reputation as the bold prophet who never wavered.
Instead, he asks. “Are you the One?”
And in doing so, he teaches us something. God is more honored by an honest question than a confident misunderstanding.
Our answers—especially the ones we cling to most tightly—can become rigid for ourselves and those around us. But good, honest questions open windows where answers have shut doors. Questions invite God in.
Jesus, on hearing of John’s question, doesn’t respond in anger or disappointment. Instead, He sends back a report. The blind see. The lame walk. The lepers are healed. The deaf hear. The dead are raised. The poor receive good news. In short, look at what God is doing. Let the works speak.
Advent’s season of waiting is a perfect time for questions. Winter days are the perfect time to ponder. Where do I see Christ at work in the world right now? What new thing is God preparing that I might be missing? Am I focused on Jesus and what he is calling me to do?
The world tells us to have answers. Social media rewards quick certainty. We admire confidence, even when confidently wrong. But winter slows us down. It offers us the opportunity to wonder, to listen, to watch.
When our expectations of God don’t match what is happening around us, that tension is not a failure of faith. It is an opportunity to ask questions. It’s an opportunity for deeper faith to grow.
As we approach Christmas and prepare room for Christ, perhaps the invitation is this: What question is my soul longing to ask God, but I’ve been afraid to voice?
Sometimes the question we’re avoiding is the very one that will open our hearts to God’s glory. Advent is the season where longing becomes prayer, uncertainty becomes openness, and questions become the path to discovering Jesus anew.
Prayer: God, teach me to ask the questions that draw me closer to you. Free me from clinging to answers that limit you in my life. Like John, give me courage to seek, to wonder, and to look for the signs of you and your kingdom. Amen.
