Advent—Hope—Day 5

I never had an Advent calendar growing up. 

But there was a way to mark time before Christmas arrived, and it all started with the delivery of the tomes of the consumer season: 

The arrival of the JCPenney and Sears and Roebuck Christmas catalogs. 

Oh, what majesty! What beauty! The small toy store in the Jasper Mall paled in comparison to all the regalia contained within those cheap, colorful pages. I can still feel them, smell them, and remember what it was like to crack the cover for the first time. 

When the catalogs came, I knew the Christmas season could officially begin in all its commercial and wanton glory.

I’d circle items, turn down pages, and dream of getting everything I ever wanted. I’d write letters to Santa and make lists for my parents and pray to God above that this would be the year I’d get a dollhouse with all the accoutrements. When presents began to appear under the tree, I’d feel them, shake them, anything to try to figure out what was inside, despite my parents’ warnings that I would spoil my surprises.

Clothes were easy to figure out. Slightly puffed rectangular shirt boxes were a dead giveaway, and they might even contain the worst Christmas presents of all time: underwear and socks. After all, were we living in the Great Depression? This was the 1980s: give me an Atari, a Rubik’s Cube, and a Barbie Corvette. Give me some My Little Pony dolls and nail polish and jewelry in my stocking, anything but an orange, an apple, and pecans—like my grandparents talked about being the highlight of their holiday.

Give me, give me, give me.

One year, I got the idea to open my presents, carefully, by peeling the tape on the edges to see what was printed on the ends of the boxes inside. The next year, my parents, knowing my tricks, got a different brand of tape, one that took the red-and-green printed paper with it, leaving an ugly tear as evidence, so there was no way to conceal what I had done.

I began looking for my parents’ hiding places for presents, and though I never found them, I knew my father, like me, was a list-maker. He had the habit of keeping a yellow legal pad where he wrote down the monthly household budget, his chore to-dos, and Other Important Random Information.

Lo and behold, that was by far the easiest way to find out what I would be getting for Christmas.

Thank God for the patience that comes with maturity, for I am much better at practicing delayed gratification these days. Still, I’ll never forget the anticipation of Christmas morning and of doing my very best before the Big Day to find out what I would be receiving.

I had to learn to wait until the right time, the appointed time—and that’s part of what the Advent season is all about. God will fulfill the things that are to be in our lives, and it’s up to us to trust Him that everything will unfold in His time.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV).

There’s no need to rush or force things. With God, the things that are meant to be in our lives will happen at the time that is best for His plan and purpose. 

And from my experience, it’s the perfect time for the rest of us, too.

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Reflection and Prayer: What good gifts has God given you? From seeing sunrises to sunsets, to feeling the breath in our lungs, to smelling the aroma of a tasty meal, we enjoy daily gifts from God. Thank God for these things, and praise Him for the wonderful surprises that are yet to come.