Funny that this Lent, I am thinking about Christmas. You see, when I was a child living at home my parents would set up the tree, wrap the gifts and make us wait for December 25 to open our surprises (most years they did let us open “please, just one present!?” on Christmas Eve).
I’m not sure I ever made the connection or that my parent’s truly intended it, but the waiting wasn’t only about building the suspense as we anticipated new toys and clothes and books, the waiting was supposed to give us time to consider the reason for the celebration.
Waiting. It’s hard. The world promises, and I have come to demand/expect, instant gratification. To wait. To consider. To stop and give some thought. Do I have to?
Of course, we don’t have to wait for most things in life. We can breeze right through, drive right through, run right through.
And we’ll miss the anticipation of hope deferred for a time, the joy of suspense that builds when our satisfaction is put off, the wonder and delight that can come when we are able to truly consider that for which we wait.
So today, I admit, I’d like to skip to Easter already. I want Spring and new life and resurrection. I don’t want wilderness and the frozen winter which grips my part of the globe. Yet, I’m of the mind that my wanting to jump ahead to read the end of the book, to skip the commercials, to fast forward through the slow and hard and mundane, is a missed opportunity and misplaced energy.
I can’t hurry Spring, why grumbleabout it?. I can celebrate Easter, but it would be a false celebration, so why not settle in to Lent?
I’m just going to have to wait.
After all, what I do with the wait is what makes life.
So I will continue to pray and search. I will post and snap pictures. I will read and share. When the new finally does come, I will have a greater understanding of it, a greater appreciation for it, a greater desire to share it with others.
So hurry up, let’s wait…
Life is better together,
Shawn
Check out what a few of my friends taking this journey with me think of this word…
Big Rubber Band Ball 