Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Depending on when you read this, it’ll be about 10 days until Christmas Eve. You can bet that until then, the younger people might ask, “Is it almost Christmas yet?”
Once they’re seven or eight, though, they’ve learned about calendars, and at least some of them will figure out exactly how many days it is until Christmas, and they’ll remind you multiple times every single day. I usually respond to that with, “So, you’d better be good!” That might quiet him for a while, especially if he’d recently gotten into trouble at school. Nonetheless, the impatience of children waiting for Christmas, birthdays, marriage, etc. is reflective of our society and I wonder if that’s not why some people have added to the Christmas gift-giving tradition by opening some presents on Christmas Eve instead of waiting until the next morning.
There are several Biblical accounts in which people waited or didn’t wait about 10 days for something good to happen. David waited 10 days for the foolishly evil Nabal to die so he could marry the beautiful and wise Abigail (1 Samuel 25:1-42; yep that’s a long passage, but it’s in the Good Book, which should make it harder to put down; the Bible is full of love stories like that, but that’s not surprising because it’s basis is a love note from God).
When asked if she’d wait 10 days to say good-bye to her family before going to meet Isaac, her husband-to-be, Rebekah said, “No way!” (Genesis 24:1-67).
After Jesus’ resurrection, he stayed on earth for about 40 days to continue preparing his disciples to go into all the world and tell about God’s love (Acts 1:1-11; Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16). Then, they waited about 10 days to be fully commissioned (Acts 2:1-42; Do the math: Pentecost came 50 days after the Feast of Firstfruits, which fell on the day of Jesus’ resurrection, the day after the Sabbath following Passover — Leviticus 23:4-16).
In Revelation 2:8-11, the church at Smyrna was told that some of them would suffer at Satan’s hand for 10 days, but if they were faithful even to the point of death, they would receive the crown of life. The encouragement to the Christians at Smyrna applies to every Christian, past, present, and future (2 Timothy 3:12-13). That “10 days” could symbolize what would seem like an eternity to a child waiting for Christmas or us waiting for Jesus’ return, the timing of which no one knows (Matthew 24:36-51). While we’re waiting, rather than worrying about our present troubles or how long we must wait until Jesus returns, we’re to focus on what comes after the wait (John 16:33; Romans 8:18-25; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18). God gives his Spirit to help us wait, but we must not give up trying to be good (Acts 2:38-39; 5:32; Romans 8:26-27, 12-17; 2 Peter 1:3-11; 3:8-13).
Do you have the indwelling Holy Spirit to help you patiently wait to receive the crown of life (2 Timothy 4:6-8)? Are you patiently waiting?
Leonard Lauriault is a member of the Church of Christ in Logan. Contact him at:
