Something Good

Christmas catalogs. We used to wait for them to come out each year.

My grandparents always had the Sears and J.C. Penny catalogs. They were the size of unbridged dictionaries. My brother and I would study every page that had the imprint of any resemblance of toys.

I sat at the end of the bar in their kitchen, on that old wooden barstool, with an ink pen and a hot cup of coffee comprised of mostly cream and sugar.

Grandma said she would buy one toy for us, and it had to be under twenty dollars. So, I would circle all the ones that were listed at $19.99. I wasn’t aware of taxes and shipping and handling. Amazon Prime wasn’t on the radar yet.

And sometimes I would get into that 23 or 25-dollar range because what’s an extra five bucks?

Honestly, I don’t remember ever getting anything that I circled. Now, I may have received something out of those magazines. But I don’t remember any of those presents.

But I do remember the experience down to the detail. The bar, barstool, Grandma scurrying around her kitchen, sipping coffee from a spoon, and the pen as it was expertly wielded, circling what I thought would be the perfect present.

It seems the greater joy was the expecting, not necessarily the getting.

I knew I was going to get something. I had no idea what. But I knew whatever it was would be good.

It seems the older we get, the less we expect good things to happen. We’ve seen the bad.

We experienced the heartache, loss, and disappointment that life can bring sometimes.

Honestly, it feels like we get conditioned to believe the worst will happen more than the best.

We don’t expect the worst to happen all the time, but when the worst happens, it wears down the honed edge of hope that good will happen someday, too.

And eventually, we lose that thrill of expectation for the good things to take place in our lives.

But let me tell you, I’m expecting something good for you and me really soon.

I don’t know what it is, but I’ve circled a few things, checked the bank account of God’s riches in glory, sipped some goodness and mercy from the wellspring of grace, and now I’m waiting with excited anticipation for some good things to come our way at the first light of brand new day.

Why don’t you join me?

to anyone needing something good,
– Caleb