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We can’t wait until we’re teenagers. We can’t wait until we can drive.  We can’t wait to graduate or get married and start a family.  We can’t wait to meet Jesus face to face and live with Him forever and ever.

Our heavenly Father inspired great words of promise for each of us.  Through these words He shared His plan for our welfare — a bright, hopeful future.  He assured us that though sorrow may come, it will last only for the night and will be followed close behind by joy in the morning.  And He described a place so wonderful that no artist’s palette can adequately capture its splendor.

From Genesis to Revelation, for this life and the next, our Father gives us hope for tomorrow, but not to take away from the joy of today.  I learned that many years ago. 

It was a financially tight Christmas season, my father having passed away in April and my mother struggling to make the necessary adjustments.  She had only two children still living at home, my sixteen year old brother and me, barely thirteen.  Mom was worried that Christmas would be slim, adding to the already difficult year.

My brother determined not to let that happen. About two weeks before Christmas wrapped gifts appeared for everyone in the family.  That is, except for me.

My brother’s thrill in his accomplishment made him want me to have my gift early, but his refusal to spoil Christmas wouldn’t allow it.  So he turned to his sense of humor for advice.  He assembled the ten-speed bicycle he bought for me – all except the front tire.  He set the almost completed bike in plain sight behind the other gifts.  Then he derived great joy in pointing it out to me as I walked through the door.

“Look.  Look behind the tree.”  Overwhelmed with his own excitement over the gift, he offered a wager, “Bet you can’t wait ‘til Christmas!”

That was one bet I wasn’t willing to take.  Not  only did I need a bike because most of my friends lived in the heart of town while we lived on the outskirts, but I also wanted that bike the instant I saw it — or most of it.

The polished silver paint job reflected light rivaled only by those illuminating a Las Vegas casino.  It called my name.  It beckoned me to hop on and take a ride, but there was no front tire.  As beautiful as it was, it leaned forward, crippled, waiting for someone to equip it with is essential missing part.

I would have to wait.

For the next two weeks, my brother, with all right to do so, enjoyed the thrill of giving.  I, on the other hand, miserably counted minute after agonizing minute until that bike could be mine.  I sat mesmerized on the sofa looking back and forth from the bike to the clock to the bike to the clock, as though they were engaged in a championship tennis match.

Then Mom stepped in.  She helped me understand that the bike wasn’t going anywhere.  It would be there waiting for me on Christmas morning.  In the meantime, I was depriving myself of other things I enjoyed and ignoring things I needed to do.  I could accomplish those things while waiting for Christmas, then I would be free after Christmas to enjoy the gift.  She added that the time would pass much more quickly if I busied myself with other activities. 

I had a choice to make.

Did I want to spend the after-Christmas vacation days enjoying the bike with its fully aired front tire, or did I want to spend those days regretfully making up for the wasted time? 

It’s amazing how much grown-ups know sometimes.

Forty years later, I still remember that bike.  We became close friends.  That friendship lasted several years, even after I could drive.  We rode the rolling hills of Clermont and took ten mile jaunts down New Smyrna Beach.  We visited friends and enjoyed the scenic views of Lake Minneola with its spectacular sunsets and Lake Minnehaha with its huge cypress trees.

More than the bike, I remember the lesson I learned that year.

I can spend every day fretting because God’s promise has not yet come to pass in my life.  I can focus on challenges, disappointments, and obligations.  I can mope about waiting for my prayer to be answered and for our Lord to return.

Or, I can see each day as a wonderful blessing–another opportunity to do those things God desires me to do and to enjoy friends, family, fun times and laughter.  I can dread yet another delay in the fulfillment of His promise in my life, or I can thank God for more time to get other things out of the way so when that promise comes I can fully enjoy it, with no regret.

Sure, I anticipate the arrival of answered prayers and fulfilled hopes.  I do indeed long to spend eternity with the Lord in a place beyond description.  But I will have an eternity to relish in His faithfulness and His presence.  I have but a few days to prepare.

Sometimes as we wait for the answer to our prayer to be manifested or we wait for that open door to be set before us, even sometimes when we dream about heaven and a life void of all disappointment and heartache, it seems as though God has put a brand new ten speed bicycle behind our Christmas tree–with no front tire,.  In essence He does.

He lets us glimpse into our future not that we will focus on the immobility of today, but to inspire us to prepare. To motivate us to get things in order and accomplish all we can so that unfinished business doesn’t spoil the thrill when the day arrives.

God doesn’t tease us.  He gives us hope for tomorrow in order that we will be passionate about today.

This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

©2023 Edited

Original copyright 2006 First published in The Vision, December 10, 2006 issue. 

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