““If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

Remember what it was like when you saw or experienced something special for the first time? The first time you saw an airplane (or flew in one), the first time you rode a bike or had a campfire or made s’mores? The first time you dove off a diving board or went snorkeling?

Life is full of “first experiences” – especially in our early years – those that seem larger than life itself. I have the joy of walking with Abigail through many of her “firsts” this year:

• First smile and laugh
• First crawl
• First tooth and food
• First steps
• First words

These are moments that parents all over the world treasure. Abigail had one of these special “first” experiences last weekend – she played with a cat! Now, she’s seen lots of animals for sure but she’s never spent one on one time playing with any of them until now.

Our neighbors, Tim and Margo, have a cat named Bertie. We visited their home for a meal and as we entered, I placed Abigail on the floor next to Bertie and watched to see her response. It was marvelous!

It was love at first touch – after petting her slowly, Abigail proceeded to rub her face against Bertie’s fur, give her a bear hug, and finally try to crawl all over the poor cat! In response, Bertie began to give clear “non-verbal” cues of “back off, kid…a little space, please!” which made Abigail hysterical! She couldn’t handle this soft, furry creature telling her “no.

Watching my children squeal with delight when they experience something for the first time is really quite splendid to witness because they see life with fresh, new eyes.

Their enjoyment of the experience is filled with awe and rejoicing. But then the time  comes when the scoop of vanilla ice cream just doesn’t have the same effect. They have tried other varieties now and may say, “I like chocolate better,” or “What else is there?” looking for something newer or better.

We live in a country where we are bombarded with advertisements throughout the day – things that we are told will improve our life, health, family, work, future, and so on. But sometimes (and maybe more often) we need to step back and say, “I don’t need to improve my life as much as I need to appreciate and enjoy it.”

The life, family, home, work, friends that we have – these are all gifts from God. We’ve all seen a child who, after receiving a brand new gift that was thoughtfully chosen for them, tosses it aside with disinterest after having another present placed in their lap. And that’s human nature.

But when I see Abigail scream with joy over watching how water shoots out of a water fountain, or a butterfly flying past her face, or by touching the soft fur of a cat, it places a hunger in my soul to stop. to pause. to look at the old or familiar in a new light of appreciation:

• Friends I’ve known for years
• my awesome husband of 12 years
• My oven that creaks and has a hard time lighting, but enables me to feed my family hot, yummy food.
• An older pair of Ugg boots that never cease to warm my feet
• the novelty of a fresh snowfall

…and maybe even a spoonful of regular vanilla ice cream, savored with eyes closed, eaten like it is my first time again.

Perhaps what we need is not a continual drive after increase or even improvement, but a deeper, slower, fuller appreciation and enjoyment of what we already have.

Appreciation breeds contentment and contentment breeds joy. And when you have a heart full of joy, and love, and peace – what more do you need?

It’s hard to improve on a squeal of delight 🙂

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in Heaven give good things to those who ask him!” – Matthew 7:11

Two nights ago as I led my eldest girls through their bedtime ritual of reading the Bible and saying their prayers, my three year old daughter, Chesed, began to pray, “Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and thank you that there will be a bouncy house in Heaven.”

She did not laugh. She was very serious before God and also very sure of the fact that there were, in fact, bouncy houses in Heaven. I did not correct her, for who am I to say what Heaven contains?!

I gave her a big hug and went downstairs, smiling at her simple faith and trust in God. I told my husband, Joel, and we both laughed about it.

The following day we were invited to a fun event in D.C. for kids to help them ring in the New Year at noon instead of midnight. We decided to go and didn’t know what would be at the event, only that it would be “fun for kids.” As we walked up to the park where the party was   happening, I couldn’t help but smile as I gazed upon three large bouncy houses with large lines of kids in front of each.

Chesed was giddy with delight. “Bouncy houses! Mommy, can we go?!” “Of course!” I said. “Chesed, did you know that God answered your prayer?” She smiled widely and began to do a little dance (I know it was just for God Himself) as if to say, “thank you, thank you!”

In the sincerity of her little three year old heart, Chesed prayed for a bouncy house in Heaven. Because she believes God loves her and wants to give her good things. Instead of a chastisement, “Heaven is too holy for bouncy houses,” or “what a frivolous thing to pray,” God not only heard her request but decided to bring ‘heaven’ to her the very next day.

There is nothing to insignificant or small to bring to God in prayer. What God cares about is that we bring all that is in our hearts to Him and trust Him for His reply.

I wrote in my journal yesterday, “Lord, increase my faith to believe you for little things, big things, all things alike – you care about them all! You are the God who hears the prayers of persecuted saints in prison cells and the God who does not lift up your nose to a three year old’s prayer for a bouncy house.”

God desires to hear all our hearts – that is what an intimate relationship is all about – He doesn’t only turn His ear to us when we are sick, hurting, or desperate. He bends near to hear our hopes, little fears, silent cares, or even what we might deem “silly desires.”

I don’t believe in the prosperity gospel. I don’t believe that if my kid asks God for a pony, one will come galloping into our yard. But He does love us with Fatherly love. He does delight in blessing us, for our good and his glory – and, as in Chesed’s place, just for the sheer joy that comes to His heart when He sees a little girl do a dance of thanks.

Yes, God sometimes says no. But to approach Him less because we suppose that is His default is wrong. Scripture says He loves to give good gifts to His children.

God instructs us to ask. And He says we have not because we ask not. His answer is not up to us, but the asking is….

What have you not talked to God about because you thought it was too silly, too small, or not important enough to bring to Him? Go ahead – talk to Him. And only God knows, but you may find yourself doing a dance of thanks yourself as a result.

“God is coming! God is coming! All the element we swim in, this existence, echoes ahead the advent. God is coming! Can you feel it?” ~ Walter Wangerin Jr.

If you’ve ever seen a live birth, you know that there is nothing like it. Nothing to describe it except words like, “miraculous,” “awesome,” and “amazing.” There is something about the birth of a child that commands the attention of everyone present.  But it isn’t as much about the birth as it is the result of the birth – the baby.

A newly born baby is like nothing else. It is what causes grown men who are now called “Daddy” to weep. It is what causes midwives and doctors and doulas who have been soundly sleeping to burst into flight at the ring of a phone and run out the door. Why? A baby is on its way and as one midwife told me, “its addictive – who wouldn’t want to watch a miracle happen again and again?”

But the baby comes through labor, often arduous and painful. Some happen so quickly the mother seems in shock to be holding the baby in her arms. Some happen so slowly the mother wonders if it will ever end – when will she finally be able to hold this child she has carried for so long?

I happened to run into one of my best friends at a birthing center yesterday. She is 5 days before her due date, happily waiting and anticipating her little boy to come. I touched her swollen abdomen and thought, “And this is what I am doing now, too. Waiting and anticipating a child. Not my own, but God’s child. God’s Son.”

I don’t remember Advent as a season growing up. I only remember Christmas itself, which was always fun and memorable and full of love and laughter.

But since I have had my own children, I have fully engaged myself in Advent and seen its purposes.

For those of you who may not know, Advent is a season observed in many Christian churches as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. The term is an anglicized version of the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming.”

Advent is waiting.

Advent is eagerly expecting.

Advent is like a spiritual labor of sorts.

We who already know Christ prepare ourselves once more for His Coming. We seek to make room for Him – the one for whom there was no room in any of the homes of Bethlehem.

Because as we all know, the month prior to Christmas tends to be the busiest, most “stuff-focused,” event-filled, (often stress-filled) month of the year for many families.

To make room for Christ during December, to be still and wait upon Him in eager anticipation, to push aside our “to do” lists for awhile and open our eyes and our hearts and our Bibles and simply wait on Christ is to engage in counter-cultural behavior for America in December.

But He is the only gift worth waiting for. The only gift worth anticipating. My girls started asking me about Christmas before Thanksgiving. And I knew that the only way for them to understand when Christmas falls on the calendar is for us to participate in Advent.

For kids who still mix up “yesterday,” and “Tuesday” and “next week,” Advent provides them with something even my three year old can do – count the days up to 25. Celebrating Christ each day, I cut slips of paper with a Bible story on each and put them in each day of the advent calendar we have. They took turns getting the slip out each night for Daddy to read to them. “Only 1 more day until Christmas!!” they said today.

What are we waiting for, really? What are they waiting for with such anticipation? Is it gifts under the tree? A sweater we will one day give away? a toy that will one day be at the bottom of the toy box?

What this Advent as taught me, what it is still teaching me, is that I am waiting to receive Christ. Every day, soaking in the desire for the Heavenly King who humbled himself to take on baby skin and complete vulnerability…so that He would know and understand our human condition, so that He could live the perfect life we never can (no matter how hard we try), so that He could die the atoning death that pays the price for our sins…

ultimately….He came so that He could be with us. Personally and Intimately. Forever.

This is the thing worth waiting for, worth anticipating, worth reveling in at Christmas. Receiving the One who alone can save us, change us, fill our empty spaces and flood our darkness with light.

As Ann Voskamp says in her wonderful Advent devotional The Greatest Gift that I have chewed on each day of December, “Your greatest gift is not your gifts, but your surrendered yes to be a space for God. ….You are most prepared for Christmas when you are done trying to make your performance into the gift and instead revel in His presence as the Gift.” 

To wait upon Christ like my friend Emily waits for her baby boy who will be born any day now…with joy…with expectancy, with focused care and loving desire.

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given” – What will it look like for you to open your heart and your soul to Christ this Christmas? And every day, receive the gift He is giving you – the gift of Himself ?