You Don't Have To Wait Until Christmas

“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” (1Co 2:9-10 AV)

 

We often quote verse nine as a way to influence the mind to dream of the eternally positive.  We state the mind cannot comprehend what awaits us in glory.  This is most certainly true.  The Bible may have a description of the glory of heaven and the glory of our God, but words will not come close to what we will experience.  In that sense, verse nine is correct.  However, taken with verse ten, this passage reveals there are things we can know.  Not all things are a mystery.  When the Spirit of God dwells within, the child of God has the opportunity to look into some of those things which God has prepared for us.  This is encouraging.  We do not have to go through life ignorant of the good things God has stored up for those who trust Him and love Him.  We can read from Genesis to Revelation and learn of all the blessings the LORD has prepared.  We don’t have to live in complete darkness regarding that which awaits us.  A bit of study and one can see a picture of the glories that await the child of God.

When my extended family gets together, stories and memories are often swapped.  One of those stories is the Christmas Present Caper.  My Mom and Dad did the whole Santa Claus thing.  Which meant hiding presents until Christmas Eve.  In turn, this created almost a dozen sleuths combing the entire house looking for these gifts.  Most of us gave up after a short try.  However, not so with one of my brothers.  My Mom was good!  It is not easy to hide gifts for a family of thirteen.  He looked everywhere.  We thought he had failed when we noticed a change in the relationship between him and my mother.  A little prying and we discovered he had found the secret hiding place.  It was a truck camper.  My Mom has stuffed this camper full of gifts and locked the door.  My brother has picked the lock and gained entry.  My Mom should have known something was up because this same brother skipped school and hung out all day in this camper.  My brother did not give up when it came to finding those gifts.  He searched high and low.  The entire spooky basement was torn apart, looking for these presents.  We had three attics and each one was thoroughly investigated.  There were enough closets scatter throughout the house that could accommodate a stash so large.  But they were in the camper.  And he found it!

When we get discouraged in our present situation, one of how we can come out of it is to do some investigation.  We can read passages that describe our heavenly home.  We can read books like John that give us the spiritual benefits of walking with God.  We can reminisce of that which God and done in the past and remember, He is not done yet.  We can think of all the blessings that came in life when we least expected them. We can count our blessings and remember it is God who bestowed them.  We can stop looking at this world as our source of joy, contentment, and fulfillment and remember it is the LORD and all He can do for us which is our true source of joy.  We can trust the LORD in His promise above.  Especially when life is hard, we can remember there lies ahead a much better life.  All these troubles will flee away and we will be at rest in the presence of Jesus.