Day 9 About this Time, Next Year

Day 9 About this Time, Next Year

10 The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” Genesis 18:10

I do not enjoy looking in the mirror. Someone stole my reflection and replaced it with a balding, slightly overweight middle-aged man. I’m not certain when it happened, but it did. Now, instead of youthful vigorous eyes, the strange visage gazes back through bifocals, framed by bushy eyebrows, crow’s feet, and laugh-lines. Now the Social-Security-Administration sends me junk-mail that I actually read, as that date is just around the corner. My favorite kind of evening ends with soft jazz, a good book, and my feet up. I can honestly say that I like slow walks around the lake watching the sunrise gild the clouds. I enjoy being the “old-man” of the school. The kids have moved out and I buy comfortable clothes. The pace of my life slows, and I do not mind.

Every December, I think of Abraham and wonder. How would I handle an infant at the age of ninety-one, some thirty years in the future? God often calls us out of our comfort zone in order to fold us into His plan. The drama of Christmas, unfolding over millennia, reminds me that God employs unlikely players in His work. An elderly, childless, couple served as the progenitors of the nation through which He would restore relationship with His creatures. Christmas announces God’s intent to engage with us, and that engagement challenges us with something new, wonderful, and just perhaps, uncomfortable.