december 2nd

In the Advent Calendar today:

"Read today's Advent Devotion online and then look up Acts 20:35 in the Bible.

~Why do you think the Bible says it is better to give then receive?

~Do you really believe that is true?"

The devotion today read that because of God's grace,

we are not lacking anything while we wait (1 Cor. 1:3-7).

We partially decorated our Christmas tree. And then it was time to go to bed. I looked at the tree this morning and thought, there's another thing I need to finish before I can set back and enjoy the holidays. I think it is my favorite Christmas tree we have ever had. It is tall and proud, well-lit and quite unaffected by it's spaces without ornaments. The devotion today reminds me that just because something is unfinished, it doesn't mean that it is incomplete.

So far, the theme of this time in Advent is waiting and giving. When we make a choice to give while we sit in the space between wanting and getting, we realize what we have. We notice the completeness of God's grace. We notice the spaces in other people's lives. We notice that we are not alone on this journey of waiting. There is comfort and companionship here.

My 12 year old had school this morning, my 10 year old did not. My son woke up my daughter 3 hours before her preferred waking time so that they could open the advent calendar together. I don't yet know what she thought of today (other than she is still a little ticked for not getting tiny treats in there) because she quickly returned to her snug bed. But when I asked him about the message today, he said it was about giving being better than getting.

He said, "It really is better because it just feels so good when someone likes what you got for them. But, I am a kid so it is hard for me to really BELIEVE that."

It's not just a kid thing thing, though. Over the years I have waited for many things, believing that only when I had them, I could be complete: the new house, the healthy baby, the parent to make it through surgery okay, the bank to not overdraft, the house to be clean, the book to be published, the debt to be paid off...

What better lesson to teach my children then that life is about waiting, about not always having all of our expectations fulfilled? That in the space of expectation, the lack of everything we want, grace is found.

You have no idea how much I am dying to go buy a bunch of tiny things for my daughter today. I am questioning my own plan. But I will wait in the discomfort of the incompletion (as I sip my coffee and relish the incompleteness of my Christmas tree) and trust that the gift of grace will find it's way in my home.