What we don't know...

      Can you think of anything being a greater test of a child's desire to be good rather than bad than being asked to go to bed on the night before Christmas, and to then stay there through the entire night, not climbing out of bed to take a quick peek under the tree and maybe peel the corner of the wrapping paper off of one or two gifts?

      Worse yet, how do the early risers among us resist the temptation to start opening their gifts before anyone else is awake? I say that a purer form of self-control does not exist anywhere on the planet.

      If any of you were like me as a child, you became pretty crafty within the month of December, looking in closets, under beds, and anywhere else you thought that your gifts might be hidden before being wrapped. And if you were anything like me, you also remember how different opening those gifts felt if you had already somehow discovered what they were. Sure, you may still have been happy about what you had received, but the vast majority of the excitement was gone. At that point, tearing off the paper became more of simply going through the motions than anything else.

      Again, if any of you are like me, you'd have to admit that you sometimes approach your walk of faith much the same way as you would a pile of presents, stacked neatly under the tree on Christmas morning.

      You see, we sometimes like to have our walk of faith - and the events that will occur within that walk - to be stacked neatly in front of us. We want to know what all of them are before they are opened, and we want to open them in the order we believe they should be opened. We want all of them tied up in neat, tightly wrapped packages with a bow upon them. We don't want to see any loose ends. We don't want to see any messy packages. Most of all, we want every one of them to make us feel happy, joyful, and blessed as we open them.

      In Luke 1, we read the story of Mary being met by the angel Gabriel to inform her of the Lord's plan for Jesus to be born of her. At that very moment in time, it was as though an enormous pile of gifts were placed before her, all of which were to be opened at the appropriate time. While a few of the major details were explained, there was far more that she simply didn't know. Some of what she would be asked to open would cause her more pain and heartache than most of us have ever experienced. Her faith being what it was, she accepted all of it as the good and acceptable will of God, and was then obedient in all she was told to do.

      While it can only be mere speculation on my part to do so, I can't help but to wonder if she would've still agreed had she been informed of the incredible heartache she would experience 33 years later.

      As I think about the many different stops of faith my own walk has led me through, I wonder how many of those packages I would've joyfully ripped into had I known what I would find inside. Had I been allowed to peel the corner of the paper back before the time had arrived for me to open some of those packages, would I still have opened them, or would I have tried to hide them under the tree, or changed the name tag so somebody else would be forced to open them?

      Speaking for myself, I can look back over the course of my life and see many "packages" I was eager and excited to open, only to be badly hurt or disappointed by what I found inside. I can also look back and see many packages I would've wanted no part of, but which were ultimately used by God to change for the better who I was as a follower of Christ.

      To some extent, I believe that we all want to know how many of the events we'll face in life will turn out before we decide whether or not we want to open those packages. But more often than not, the beauty can only be found when we don't know - when we open what's been placed before us with great expectation and excitement, because we know that all we've been given comes from the Lord, and whether we can see it now or not, "we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."  - Romans 8:28

      You see, as much as we'd like to peek into the future, it's almost always better that we simply don't know, because it's only then that we can walk in genuine faith, and as we were intended to do so, one day at a time, being obedient in our walk, and fully trusting the Lord with the final outcome.