Expecting a Package

Hello...it's me. I was wondering if after all these years you'd like to...well nevermind. 

Hi!

It's been awhile.

Something that came to my mind this morning as I was at church was the concept of expectations. 

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this semester I would walk over to the student center after lunch with my friends to go check our mail. The ironic thing is, we would always exclaim "let's see if we have friends!!", as we ran over to our respective mailboxes. This came from the assumption that we didn't have friends if we didn't have any mail. Even if we received campus mail, we would still say "I have no friends".

This happened a lot, even if we ordered something online, because mail seemed to get there really slow. We'd walk up to our boxes, expectations running high, peek in, and see nothing, then slowly walk away. We would regroup and move on to our goodbyes, making dinner plans as we parted. Our expectations had again failed us.

This same thing happens when we wait for the mail man at home. We hope for something in the mailbox, just one thing that says our name on it. Or we order something online, and we wait patiently for the mail truck to come to deliver our well-anticipated package. 

What we don't realize is the striking parallel we should be making between expectations and Jesus. Isaiah 40:31 says:

"But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength;They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint."

We should be waiting on the Lord like we wait for mail. Wait on Jesus like we're waiting for a delivery truck. Because finding Jesus takes desire, it takes faith, it follows faithfulness, it takes obedience, and it produces praise (Clint Sprague's points from Life Mission Church 12/20/15). Finding Jesus results in praise, just like finding our package outside our door results in happiness. 

The expectant find Jesus. And if we have an expectation for Jesus like we have for packages, we'll truly find him. When you live with an expectation to find Jesus, you begin to focus on the more important. Because God shows up when we expect Him to.

Now go read Luke 2:22-38 and wait on the Lord.