This holiday season has felt so different for me. Not only is it flying by, but I find my heart, being completely honest, a little distracted and more focused on the arrival of my little girl than the birth of Christ this year. I suppose that’s to be understood, right?
I have been nesting like crazy these past few weeks that we’ve been nestling back into home life and off the road for a season. It has been so much fun putting the finishing touches on her nursery, pulling tags off of her tiny new clothes and washing and putting them neatly in her drawers. I go into her room often and just stare, imagining what it will be like in a few weeks when she’s with us! Hard to wrap my mind around.
A few nights ago I was in my bedroom putting some laundry away and I found myself looking, again, at her 18 week ultrasound photo (the one where we found out we were having a GIRL) which sits framed next to my bed. It hit me not only how tiny she was then but even more how much she has grown and developed in the past several months. The last time we got a peak at her she was roughly the size of bell pepper (strange that babies get compared to random fruit and vegetables but oh well) — only 5 and half inches long and few ounces. And since then how she has changed and developed so much but I can only feel it. I am aching to see her face! To see whose features she has, which I’m praying she has Stephens blue eyes. I can’t wait to hold her and smell her smell and watch her be her. I can’t wait to lay eyes on our little girl!
Then it dawned on me… all this anticipation that I feel for her is only a glimpse of what it will be to lock eyes with Jesus face some day. The anticipation that all of heaven must have felt when Christ came to earth at Christmas and now how heaven and His bride ache for the day He will come again for us, once and for all, to redeem and set us free! It was a revelation moment for me as I stared at that picture. My anticipation and story is only a shadow of the grandest story of all. Still I say, Thank you Jesus that you give us glimpses into what you are doing on much grander scale. A peek into His heart and how He loves and longs for us.
I anticipate the moment I lock eyes with our daughter. It will be one of the grandest moments of my earthly life AND a taste of what’s to come. Praying this Christmas season for a fresh longing to see my Saviors face and that the anticipation for His return would burn more and more in my heart!
"Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall SEE him as he is."
1 John 3:2
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year,
Ally