Anticipation

When I heard the weather report calling for snow, I'll admit that I was a little bit cynical. So far this winter, areas east and west of us have gotten at least a little bit of snow but all we've seen so far are flurries. When the weathermen were in agreement on Saturday night that a storm was coming, I got a little more excited but still wasn't holding my breath.

Yesterday afternoon after church the skies broke free at our house. The flakes were huge and it quickly accumulated to about an inch. I let my two oldest girls go out and play until they had snice coming from their noses (snot + ice = snice) and then it was hot chocolate until round 2 in the snow. But round 2 didn't come last night.

The snow changed to freezing rain and there was no way I could let them go out in that mess. They were incredibly disappointed but a good supper and lounging around with a movie cured that pretty quickly. However, the talk at our house was what would happen later on. They were calling for even more snow and my kids couldn't wait to play in it the next day.

Kellie and I were roused from our sleep this morning by excited voices demanding - not asking - to go outside to play in the "winter wonderland" as they called it. Sure enough, the skies had dumped around 5 inches on us over night and it was absolutely gorgeous. We tried to tell the kids to wait a few more minutes but that's like trying to tell a Duke basketball fan not to be obnoxious - it just wasn't happening. So we helped them get all bundled up and out the door they went into the wind-whipped tundra that is our yard.

The excitement that my kids showed for the snow was infectious. I'm a warm weather guy. I could care less if we missed winter at all. But something about the snow and their enthusiasm for it moved me in that same direction. Could there be some kind of spiritual connection with all of this? I'm glad you asked.

Wouldn't it be great if we could live with that same kind of hyped-up anticipation for God? We don't need a meteorologist to predict when He'll move next yet we know that He will. We've seen Him move in our own lives and experienced the thrill of His Spirit. But do we fidget like a school-aged kid waiting for His next move? Are we excited about the prospect that He'll move in the life of someone we've been praying for or that He'll reveal the next piece of the puzzle that He has in store for our lives? The snow is going to melt, much sooner than the kids want it to. There probably won't be another snow fall until next winter. Yet we know that God is primed to move at any moment all around us. I'm pretty excited about that.