Friday, December 17, 2010

The Gift is Coming!

This Christmas is a bit different from all the ones of years before and not just because it's Christmas Present instead of Christmas Past.   Because Austin and his family have gotten stranded a couple of times in snow on the interstate in Indiana on their way south, we decided to do Christmas with all the kids and grand girls on the day after Thanksgiving.  Lots of fun to be with the girlies when they started opening presents!

So Christmas activities are, more or less, in the rear view mirror for us.  Zannie, Andrew, and I will be going to Gulf Shores for Christmas; that'll be a bit different.  And we have the staff Christmas party ahead of us but things are gearing down now; however...

There is still one more gift Zannie and I are waiting for.  Our house is listed on the real estate market and we are waiting for God to bring us a buyer but that's not all of the gift for which we are waiting.  Zannie and I both strongly feel that our house was exactly the one He wanted us to have when we moved to Alabama.  We are convinced of it!  We are equally convinced that He has a particular house in Decatur for us as well.  We've been praying that He will place us in a house where we can be actively involved in ministry to our neighbors particularly in the area of evangelism.

Just as convinced of His placing us on Blackburn Road are we that He has a very specific house for us in Decatur.  It may still be owned by someone who, right now, has no thoughts of selling it.  It may be in foreclosure.  It may not even be built yet.  It may have been on the market for a long time or just recently become available.  Only He knows but we are on His schedule and in His perfect time we'll know.  We are expecting to literally know which house it is when we see it. I told Zannie this morning that I feel like a kid who sees the gift under the tree; I know it's there but I just have no clue what is on the other side of the pretty paper.  Anticipation is high and gets higher every day but I will just have to wait. I can't cheat by slipping off the paper and rewrapping this gift (not that I would have ever thought of doing anything like that at any stage in my life).  I can't even shake this surprise.  I just have to trust that my Father will choose the perfect gift for us and we will be shown later.  The excitement is building!

I am thankful that we have Him as our real estate agent to sell our current house and we don't even have to pick out our next house.  He will pick it out for us.  We sure do have a great Father!  All good gifts and all perfect gifts, after all, do come from Him.

Merry Christmas!