A Puppy in the Aftermath

Of course I’m zoned out, aren’t you? Yesterday’s carbs have fully kicked in, and that alone constitutes a Christmas hangover. But there’s so much more contributing to what I often call the Aftermath, December 26, when everything sags, caves, goes to bed. The annual combination of family, worship, partying, binge eating, giving and getting creates a massive emotional and chemical high to recoup from, and normally the day after finds me numb and lethargic.

Not this year, though. I’m still pumped like a kid trying to keep awake for a glimpse of Santa, because my main gift still hasn’t arrived. But my wife promised it, my sons witnessed the promise, and we’re now in full preparation mode for a puppy.

Yes, a puppy. If you’re a dog lover you’re glowing; if not, you’re bored, and I understand. Anyway, Renee and the boys (men, I have to get used the truth) prefer an English Bulldog, and since I’m so nuts about dogs of any sort, a bull it will be. If it’s a he-bull, I’ll call him DeNiro; if female, she’ll be Bella, both names being a nod to my wife’s Italian ancestry. I can’t wait.

In a way, my expectancy reflects what we don’t have in our home, which is a loving home, mind you, and I trust a happy one. But there are gifts only a dog can bring to a family. They bring magic, a warmth permeating every room they trot in and out of. They adore us unquestioningly; we find ourselves entertained and delighted just watching them, sometimes for hours. They summon our nurturing side, they keep us moving, they read our moods with sonar-like accuracy; they give us extra and welcome purpose when we come home. A dogless house misses out on all this, and yes, I know not everyone is a dog lover, so cat lovers or bird lovers or whatever lovers can easily substitute their preferred type of pet for “dog” in all of this.

And of course, not everyone can or should own a pet. But for me, there’s just something missing when I don’t have that special companionship, that steely bond making the little sacrifices of dog owning so worthwhile.

Anticipation

But the virtue of dogs isn’t my point here. Anticipation is. There’s genuine, robust power in anticipation, breathing fresh life into us and keeping us hopeful. That’s what energizes me today, and that’s why I’m trying to build in other things to anticipate in 2015. There’s Bella or DeNiro, of course. Then there’s the 55 mile Bike-a-Thon I’m going to ride in April, the online video seminars I’m taping, the men’s Bible study I’ll start teaching in January, and some new landscaping to do in the back. I get bored and even depressed fairly easily, so I need these markers to look forward to and prepare for.

But all these plans can fall through, all of them. I’ve no guarantee that what I’m anticipating will even happen, since so many crazy things can derail what we’re counting on. Yet I need anticipation, and badly. How much more, then, should I fix my anticipation on what can’t be aborted, what will happen regardless,
what’s guaranteed?

And Here’s What Comes with a Guarantee:

I will finally see Him (I John 3:2), knowing Him as He knows me (I Corinthians 13:12) experiencing the fullness of the glory I only have a foretaste of for now. (II Corinthians 1:22) My decaying body will be shed for my incorruptible one; (I Corinthians 15:53); I’ll never again know what it’s like wrestling with sin and temptation (Romans 8:23); I’ll never again weep over a lost loved one – or over anything, for that matter! – (Revelation 21:4) and so, as Paul said, I will ever be with the Lord. (I Thessalonians 4:17) My life here – which has love and purpose, for sure – is like my home here: wonderful in many ways, but only a preview. The best of what I know will be perfected; the worst of what I experience will be expunged. There’s a solid, unmovable fact I can lay heart on soul on, anticipating what has to be and, I firmly believe, soon will be. And that, in the aftermath of Christmas and the hope of wonderful yet temporal blessings, is where my soul finally must and will anchor.

That’s the ultimate in anticipation.

Meanwhile, Bella or DeNiro, hang on. I’m comin’ to get ya’ soon.