(Based on Daniel Zine Chapter 12: A New Vision)
Juliette Alvey
Dear Grown-up,
Remember when you were a kid, and you woke up Christmas morning to find presents magically under the tree? You had no part in any of it, besides maybe making a few requests. As an adult the wonder and excitement have faded a bit, because let’s be honest… I’m the one preparing and providing all the things that “magically” appear. Sure, I enjoy seeing the wonder in my children’s eyes, but I am weighed down by the pressure of making Christmas joyful without letting anyone down.
It reminds me of a couple years ago when I gave my five-year-old daughter a pack of playdough. I didn’t think she had outgrown this activity yet (she hadn’t), and I hoped that when she saw a whole bunch of fresh containers with lots of different colors that she would be happy. No such luck. She opened up the present and said in teenager-like fashion, “Lame.”
Now before you feel too sorry for me, I need to tell you that I was not offended. I actually couldn’t stop laughing! That story will remain one of my favorites, and I will be sure to not let my daughter live that down.
As funny as that situation was, the pressure of making sure everyone has a magical Christmas is not. The truth is, I do not wait for Christmas with the same kind of hope that I used to as a child. I think in order to regain that hope I need to return to my own childhood…
It was Christmas morning, and I was super excited to see what was downstairs waiting for me. I peeked around the corner to see… a brand new bike! I couldn’t wait to try it out, and luckily since I grew up in California, I was able to put it to immediate use. I felt free on that bike, moving around the neighborhood at breakneck speeds!
When I received that bike, nowhere in my conscience was the question of how it came to appear there by the Christmas tree. I did not ask my mom how much it cost or how many stores she went to before she found the purple color that she knew I wanted. The burden of that gift had been completely on her… and I was oblivious.
But I wonder, would my mom have wanted me to dwell on those details? Or did she just want to see the joy on my face when I saw it there and when I tried it out for the first time?
In the book of Daniel, he is also struggling with finding hope as he bears a large burden. God gives him some terrible visions of the world and kingdoms fighting. It causes him to ask, “How will this end?” There seems to be no hope for the world at all. But God leaves him with a hopeful word… in fact, this is the last sentence of the book of Daniel:
“As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance” (Daniel 12:13).
God wants to give us REST and to remind us that we will RISE and RECEIVE an inheritance. These are the gifts that God delights to give to his creation, including Daniel. And to this worn out mom who has lost her wonder and delight in the future, that all sounds like a weight lifted and like hope restored. Because to be honest, sometimes as an adult, we do not wait in hope, but in dread. We worry about the future instead of looking forward to it. We become more aware of the dark realities of life and know that we will all come to the end of our lives at some point. And if death was all we had to look forward to, that would be no hope at all. But Daniel reminds us that death will not be the end, it will be our rest before our inheritance. And what is this inheritance? Peter explains in the New Testament:
“In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3-5).
Our inheritance is one that will never perish, spoil, or fade. Even the best Christmas presents in the world do not last forever, but God’s gift to his children will never break or get old. This kind of gift is worth the wait. This is the gift of Jesus, the savior promised to the world during Daniel’s time, who came as a baby at Christmas, and who will return one day to make our joy complete.
Like a kid at Christmas, I don’t always remember the burden that was placed on Jesus. I don’t know all that he had to go through in order to bring me this wonderful gift. But he looks on me with love and lives to see the joy on my face when that day finally arrives. Until then, I will wait in HOPE.
