Day 19: Patience

At first glance this picture might seem self-explanatory as to why this is patience.  But actually, all those gifts are from me.  I find one of the hardest things to be patient about is when I have a gift that I have spent time thinking about, and I feel I have come up with something great, but I have to wait to find out someone's reaction.  But there is beauty in that anticipation.  So often we want to just get to the next thing that we forget to appreciate that time of anticipation.  And that is what Advent is meant to be - a season of anticipation for what God is about to do.  It's hard in our time because we know the next part of the story.  We know what happens on Christmas day, and we want to jump right there.  But today, and through advent, I try to also appreciate the anticipation.  Because Christmas isn't over.  Christ is working in the world all the time, and part of following him is not knowing what will come next.  So we must be patient and wait in anticipation of what God will do next.  O Come, O Come Emmanuel....