For each of the 12 days of Christmas, I’ll review and fill out one of the “12 Ways of Christmas” …

“Christmas didn’t change anything,” began our 2005 Christmas editorial “The Waiting.”  “At least it can seem that way.”

“We’re not told what happened to the shepherds after that fateful first Noel, but we can imagine that they might have gotten a little bit discouraged. They heard angels sing Gloria in Excelsis Deo and proclaim peace on earth. Then the angels left, and peace didn’t come. Mysterious Magi followed a star from faraway lands and laid gifts at the feet of the newborn king. Then the Magi left, and the only effect of their coming was to provoke King Herod to order a brutal, bloody massacre.

“By the time those shepherds, the first recipients of the Good News, were old men, the news still looked bad. John the Baptist was the newest prophet, and his message was the same as always: Keep waiting. …”

The editorial has a happy ending (go and see), much like today’s Christmas lesson, appropriate for the second day of Gospel readings about Simeon and Anna, both of whom waited into old age for the Good News:

“6. God is patient. In America, we tend to expect everything now. God isn’t like that. He exists apart from time: A thousand years is like a day to him, and vice versa. He promised a savior, and took thousands of years to deliver. The Messiah came as an embryo for nine months, then was born but would take decades to mature. Then he inaugurated his Kingdom with a band of 12 relatively unremarkable men. Two millennia later, much progress has been made but much more must come before we have peace on earth.”

— Tom Hoopes