This Christmas, Isaac helped to teach me a valuable lesson about waiting.

 

Back in October Jimmy and I ordered Isaac and Caleb’s Christmas gifts from christianbooks.com (and prayed they would get here in time!).  When the box actually arrived, Isaac begged to know what was in it.  I told him it contained a very special gift...for Christmas.  For days Isaac looked through the christianbooks.com magazine trying to figure out what was in that box.  He continued to ask time and again what it was.  My answer was always the same--you’ll have to wait ‘til Christmas.  That wasn’t good enough for Isaac and he relentlessly begged day after day.

 

I explained to Isaac that if he knew what was in the box it wouldn’t change the fact that he would not get the gift until Christmas.  I also tried to help him understand that if he knew what he was getting now, he wouldn’t be as excited later, when he opened it.

 

Immediately after explaining that to Isaac, God spoke to me.  He said, “Diana, you’ve been acting just like Isaac.  You are wanting to know right now what the future holds for you after Tanzania.  You don’t need to know, yet.  I am a God who knows what you need and I know that what I have in store is good.  Just wait...I know you’re going to like this!”

 

Whoa!  He was right, as usual.  I had been worrying about our future and the truth is, what difference would it make if I knew right now.  We are still serving in Shinyanga--the place where God called us to serve throughout this term.  I knew I needed to just wait.

 

On Christmas, Isaac was very excited to open his gifts.  His face lit up when he opened the box from christianbooks.com and saw the Bibleman action figure!  I asked Isaac what he thought of his Bibleman and he said, “I liked it!”  When I asked him if he was glad he waited, he said, “Yes!”  I also asked him if he wished that I would have told him back in October and, of course, he said, “No...I really wanted to wait.”  Sure you did.

 

I’ll admit, there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to wait...but I know that what God has in store for us is better than what I could plan.  So, I’ll just have to wait to open that present.