When I think about what I’m doing with my life now, where I’m living, how far away I am from my biological family, the incredible strangers who have become my chosen family … never, not once in any dream or imagining in all my growing up could I have pictured this lived reality.
What about you? Did everything in life unfold exactly as you thought it would?
And, when you really think about it … isn’t it kind of exciting that some of the parts of your life that you consider to be completely well suited to you now, you could never in a million years have planned.
The concept of anticipation isn’t just about waiting for something. It’s also about the unexpected. Even when we anticipate every detail it may not happen as we planned, as we anticipated, even as we wished or hoped for. Sometimes it will be better and sometimes it will be … well … something we have to get used to.
As soon as the angel Gabriel leaves Mary, Mary gets up and heads off to visit Elizabeth. It’s a delightful passage we’ll hear this Sunday about the unborn babies jumping and kicking about in Mary and Elizabeth’s wombs … like some big blessing or foretelling … like God is at work and they don’t quite know what to anticipate or expect, but they’re ready for it.
May that be true for us this advent season too!!!