Anticipation

I noticed last night as I reviewed the program directory on our satellite TV service that there are at least three networks that have begun showing their current array of Christmas movies.  It seems to grow and get earlier each year!  But you know… I took the hook and have begun to record and watch some of the early previews of the Holiday Season.  Most of the movies tend to stir up fond memories of Christmas’ past.  As I studied from Proverbs 3:5-7 today I suddenly found myself reliving one of these memories…

I recalled a Christmas many years ago as an elementary student.  It was during this time that my love for cars was birthed.  I’m not real sure how my interest was piqued.  I think that it might have been my maternal grandfather’s interest in new cars that got me started as the two of us would sit together in their living room and look through the new car brochures that he picked up at the beginning of each new model year.  But however it happened, I was hooked for life!

During my early school years I fell in love with Matchbox® cars and had built up quite a collection of them.  What I remembered about that special Christmas was the little wrapped box with my name on it that my Mom had placed under the tree about a week before Christmas morning.  My Mom had a tradition of wrapping presents throughout the week leading up to the Holiday and placing them under the tree as she went along.  It came to be an exciting adventure for us three kids as we would check out and see the pile of presents growing each day.

Well, let me tell you… that little box was driving me crazy with anticipation.  Because of its familiar size and shape I knew that it had to be a Matchbox® car!  I think that I spent every free moment holding that present trying to imagine which of my favorite cars it was.  By the time it came to FINALLY open the gift I was beside myself with expectation and the anticipation of many hours of enjoyment.  As it turns out… it was a Matchbox® car, but not any of the ones that I really had dreamed it to be!  It was an interesting looking six-wheeled Fire Emergency Truck. 

At that point though, it didn’t really matter that it wasn’t exactly what I wanted.  My anticipation was built up so high that I could not be disappointed and that little red truck soon became one of my all-time favorite toys!  I have to admit that I was a little disappointed years later when I presented my (old and worn, but very special) collection to our older son.  I don’t recall him ever playing much with toy cars… although he has carried on the enjoyment of hot and fast cars into his adult life!  My hopes were finally rewarded seven or eight years later when our younger son took a real liking to the old collection that our older son had since passed down to him… and every time I saw him playing with that funny looking Fire Truck I remembered that wonderful Christmas that was filled with an anticipation of good things that could not be daunted!

Proverbs 3:5 instructs us to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding.” (God’s Word ©)  The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges states that “This teaching of trust in God anticipates the doctrine of faith.”  The memory of my continually growing anticipation over that little wrapped box that I had developed in me as I focused on it over that week so many years past can be compared to the level of anticipation of the good things and promises in God’s Word that we develop in us as we stay increasingly focused on it.  By the time Christmas came I was more than ready to tear open the package and enjoy its contents.  I believe that the writer of Proverbs 3:5 was giving us the same exact message in this portion of scripture!

By staying focused on the Word of promise we develop an anticipation within us that cannot be daunted or denied!  And let me tell you… that is a most exciting place to be… even as an adult!  You didn’t think that God only reserves that wonderful, innocent place of earnest expectation or anticipation for children did you?  I believe that there are some things that we are never to grow out of!  God wants His adult children to stay in the place of high anticipation of His will being performed in, for and through us throughout our lives.  I personally am expecting to keep that anticipation of His best going until I step into the next world… How about you?

Have a great day and a greatly expectant Christmas Holiday Season as you anticipate Him and the good things that He has wrapped up just for you!  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting and anticipating today?”