When God himself comes to us, then Advent truly begins to become real. When we see all our hopes and dreams shattered by questioning, by fruitless efforts and failures; when the narrowness of our existence wounds us; when suddenly we are tormented by the thought that all is lost and fallen into oblivion; and when the cry is wrenched from us: “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down” (Isaiah 64:1), then perhaps we can understand what the Bible means by “waiting.”

– Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Sermon for Advent Sunday, Nov. 29, 1931 in Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Christmas Sermons, pgs. 51-52.