I’m sure that when Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim came together to write the Broadway musical “West Side Story”, their intentions when writing the song “Something’s Coming” were not to have written an Advent song, but they did. This song is full of anticipation… In it, Tony sings of this unknown something that’s coming, something big, something great, something good, and he didn’t know when it would arrive.
From early on in history, the Israelites had been promised a messiah. They lived in constant anticipation of the arrival of a leader, someone to deliver them out of exile. They saw flashes of this in Moses, but they knew that Moses wasn’t the promised deliverer. They knew that amazing things will happen when the messiah finally comes!
But still, the Israelites wondered … “Could this really be true? I mean, God is all-knowing and all-powerful and all that, but is this true? Is this messiah ever going to get here? I’m getting impatient!”
The Israelites are reassured throughout their times of trouble that their deliverer is coming. Finally … FINALLY … the time is right for the messiah to come. You might think that when something or someone great is coming, that person will arrive with all the trappings and honors due to someone in their position. But that’s not the case when the messiah is being sent to us.
No one at that time knew the impact that an unwed servant girl and her son, illegitimate according to the law, would have on the world. But all of Israel knew that God would indeed fulfill his promise. They knew that God would hold fast to his word and send a savior to the people. And when that savior does come to us, we are invited to pull up a chair and meet this guy, this something great …
The air is hummin’
And something great is coming
Who knows
It’s only just
Out of reach
Down the block, on a beach
Maybe tonight
Maybe tonight…
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Andrea Toven is a radio broadcast engineer and head of electronic component sales for Smiling Dog Systems. She and her husband Shane, a marketing manager for The Telos Alliance, live in Laramie with their four-legged children Callie, Leo, and Norman.
