Living into God's Promised Future

Over the past several weeks, things have been moving and changing around our household. Our family's awaiting of our next addition has been the major catalyst of it all. N is already starting some of the creative rethinking about our house. We love our condo, but it's a small space, so we are measuring rooms and baby furniture and imagining how everything will fit together into a perfect workable space, sort of like Tetris pieces as they slowly fall from the top of the screen to meet the other pieces at the bottom. It is giving us a chance to simplify even more, to bless others with items we've collected over the years, and to thank God for a space that we can call home.

The biggest changes, though, haven't been with our place but with M. Since finding out that we are anxiously expecting a new face around the house, she's been quickly trying to grow into her new role. For those of you who follow some of these Magnusson-family-moments, you know that one of the major changes has been in M's interest in potty training. Last week she went five straight days without an accident, day or night. It was such a great streak of success that N dared to forego the diaper one night and let her stay in her "big girl" clothes. Like a clutch hitter moving into October, she kept he streak alive. She was dry, the bed was dry, and there was much joy in Mudville.

That morning N posted this major feat on her wall, anxious to share the news with several hundred of her closest "friends." Jeanne Kilgore quickly commented: "Oh, how great that is. She is getting ready to be that big sister!!" I've spent a lot of time reflecting on that statement over the past week. There is so much truth there, not just about the leaps and bounds my little girl is making each day as she grows up, but about the Christian life.

Think about this. The reality of M being a "big sis" is on the horizon, but not yet a reality. Right now it's only promise that she has to trust. There are small signs on the horizon right now. She experiences our excitement. She can look at the little peanut in our first ultrasound picture. She can see the a little baby bump steadily growing on mommy's tummy. She is anxiously awaiting a new reality that she knows is on the horizon.

But, with all of the excitement, she really has very little idea what she is waiting for. She's now living into this new reality, this promise, but she really has almost no understanding of what it will look like. She watches and imitates her friend G, seeing how she lives as a big sister, but it's still hard to grasp fully the reality of the future that is on the horizon for our family. Sounds a lot like our faith in God's future.

As the people of God, we trust in God's promises to restore and reconcile all of creation. We long for new creation, a new heaven and a new earth. We anxiously await the coming of God's righteousness and justice, of a time of peace for all people, of reconciliation, of joy. Right now, though, we only see glimmers of this future. We come to Scripture to hear God’s promises again and we, like M, are getting ready for what is to come. That doesn't mean that we passively wait for heaven to come. No, it means that we actively partner with God to bring about God's promised vision for the world. That promise sets us on a road that leads to another land, to another reality. We step boldly and hopefully into the future, so that the promises of God that are on the horizon continue to move steadily closer to becoming a reality, to meet the horizon of our lives, in our community, and in our world.