A Sense of Anticipation: Part One

As I write this blog I am looking at a picture that was taken of our dining room table on a Thanksgiving day several years ago. It is set in expectation that someone will enjoy fellowship and refreshment at this table. Many family memories are represented here. We had collected those blue dishes that adorn each place setting from our neighborhood grocery store when the children were young.  The dishes, like Judd and I, are now antiques.  The tall blue drinking glasses were gifts from my daughter Sara.  The antique oil lamps which came from my father-in-law’s collection are a silent reminder of his presence at this table. Name cards attached to fall leafs have been carefully placed on each plate identifying the anticipated guest at that spot.  In the forefront lies a Bible, opened and waiting for Judd to read before the meal begins. A delicious Thanksgiving dinner will soon grace the table, and people will be looking for their seats. Laughter and conversation will fill the room.  But at the moment of this picture, one can only perceive a sense of anticipation.

Is this not what God asks of us?  Anticipate me.  Prepare for me.  Look for my presence in what is about to take place, in what is taking place.  Set the table in expectation.

So, I rise early in the day, take my cup of coffee to my special spot, open my Bible and anticipate that God is going to meet me there.  I walk through the day and I anticipate that God will guide my thoughts, that He will bring people and incidents into my life that may give me a new glimpse of Him, I anticipate that my steps are ordained by Him and that He will finish the work that He has begun in me.  I anticipate in all of these little encounters, in all of His “supping with me,”  they are only a minute foretaste of that great feast we will enjoy with Him someday.