Longing Fulfilled

I am soooo excited as I write this morning. Something I've been anticipating will finally arrive today and I just have to share it with you, dear readers.

It seems that Americans find it very difficult to wait for anything.

Everything from foods to passport pictures have the word "instant" attached to them now. It seems that the current philosophy is: "See it. Want it. Buy it." Can't really afford it? "Charge it." Hmmmmm.

Back in the day, we had something called "Lay Away Plans." For those of you too young to know about this, allow me to briefly explain. A similar philosophy was involved with one minor exception: "See it. Want it. Put it on Lay Away and make small payments until it is completely paid off, then take it home."

I was very pleasantly surprised a few weeks ago to learn that the furniture store I was looking in, still utilized this excellent philosophy. I found the armoire that met all the specifications important to me and I was really interested. The sales person immediately launched into their excellent plan of: "Sign here and take it home right away, no need to wait at all!"

Unfortunately for them, Frank and I try very hard to avoid credit of any sort these days. Just as I was ready to leave, the salesman said, "Are you familiar with Lay Away?" (Now you're talking!) That was about three months ago and we've slowly been adding to the down payment. First this little bit of change then that little extra honorarium. My birthday "gifts" put us over the top!

In my mind, I've rearranged my bedroom countless times during these three months of waiting. It has really been fun to dream and imagine how the piece will look with the dresser and bed I already have. (The matching dresser is also on "lay away" for later this year.)

And as I sit here writing, Frank and John are on their way to Haverty's to pick up my lovely, longed for armoire. Not gonna lie, I'm very excited! (Yes, I'm aware that flat screen TV's have made armoires kind of archaic. But this is a lovely piece of furniture still and will serve well for many years to come.)

While writing a sermon once, I felt prompted that one of the points should be about longing. Don't you remember longing for that special gift at Christmas? It was more special than any other! And you could probably tell your own great story right now about that gift. Or longing for a degree, or relationship, or baby, or.............. Somehow the longing causes things to be more treasured, more appreciated, more valued.

Waiting and longing have somehow become ugly concepts in our world today. But perhaps there was a reason God intentionally built delay into our world. Hmmmmmm.

Must run vacuum the spot where the old chest has been sitting. Besides I think I can hear sleigh bells coming around the corner and I can tell you that it has been well worth the wait! Smile.