anticipation

It’s called anticipation. I am sitting here waiting for a perfect picture of the sunrise. I kind of do that- I love to take hold of a chance to get the perfect picture. There is a lot of waiting involved. Waiting for the right time, waiting for the right color, waiting for a cloud to move, waiting for morning actually, so the sun does comes up and waiting for mother nature.

But when it comes, when that perfect moment happens, when the light is just right and the sun peeks its head over the trees on the east side of the lake, it’s a beautiful moment. Often times I capture it; Perfectly. Then there are times when I look at whats in front of me and what shows up on my camera and know that this is a moment for the heart. I can’t capture its beauty in any other way except in my heart. I have to be ok with times like that also. I have to be okay with knowing the beauty is there, I just can’t capture it.

We know those time happen in life too. It’s not just the physical things that wow us but there are moments when as much as we would like, to grasp the glory of the moment will only remain in the heart. It’s also one of those times when we try to explain it to someone else and in the end we resort to, “you just had to be there.” That sometimes is in a moment, a joke, or an event. There is something sacred about just taking it in and knowing that’s the beauty you will only hold as a memory.

Psalm 111:1-2 “Praise the LORD. I will extol the LORD with all my heart in the council of the upright and in the assembly. 2 Great are the works of the LORD; they are pondered by all who delight in them.”

Sometimes I may be at fault for anticipating the works of the Lord more than delighting in them. In our culture we want to move on to the next glory. We anticipate well, we get all excited and then when it’s there, we take a quick picture and say “what’s next?” When does the sun come up tomorrow?

“They are pondered by all who delight in them” goes a bit beyond the moment. Most of the time, we don’t ponder. We don’t sit still long enough to ponder. We are a people that move. After all, we have to be productive and accomplish and move on! Moving means we are making ourselves useful on the planet and after all Jesus did say “go”. We get so caught up with going that we don’t relish where we are so when we get where we are going, we tend to say, “is this all there is?” Pondering changes our focus on where we are going to where we are now. Where we are now, the sunrise in the morning, the crisp snow along the deck, and yes, the cold air coming in through the walls lets me see the lines in the sky, the streaks of color that change as the sun moves upward in the sky, the simple way the sun reflects off the snow and the trees making shadows as the sun changes it’s position in the early morning. We miss all that if we hurry on to say, “that’s over what’s next?”

There is an unspoken beauty when holding a baby. We all fight for the chance to hold a sleeping baby for many reasons. I used to love the fact that when I wanted quiet time, find a baby to snuggle. People will come over to talk, see I have a baby and it’s sleeping, and either back away or just marvel with me. We used to watch our firstborn sleep. We would look at her face, marvel over her hands, the way she changed her mouth and suddenly would smirk, then go back to relaxed calm. We didn’t’ want to hurry the moment, we knew it would go there on its own. Do that with life. I am sitting here, it’s been about 20 minutes and the sun is almost shooting over the ridge. I am wrapped up in a quilt, waiting. I am pondering. I am thinking. I am praying. According to the weather app, the sun rose ten minutes ago. But it hasn’t peaked over the ridge yet. We also worry when someone else gets the sunrise before us. Hayward, Wisconsin can see the sun. They are 20 miles east of me. It’s okay- because anticipating brings a joy and I can ponder that joy while I wait for my moment. Remind yourself when you are in “the moment” to stay in the moment a bit longer and ponder. Time moves quickly: don’t past delighting in the works of the Lord.