One of my favorite conversations with my kids in the past couple of weeks … but first, the background.
Our son is in sixth grade, which means we’ve spent the last couple of months adjusting to middle school (and, yes, I said ‘we’ – he’s not the only one getting used to the changes!). We were in the midst of homecoming week for the high school he’ll go to in (gulp) three more years. The middle school had its own version of dress-up days that week, so it’d been a pretty crazy week. We were driving home from his trumpet lesson on Thursday night when he announced that they were having a pep rally the next afternoon.
“What’s a pep rally?” our daughter asked.
“I have no idea!” he answered. “But I’m gonna have fun!”
We all had a good laugh and I tried to explain what happens during a pep rally (though I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve changed since I was in high school… that was [ahem] a few years ago). The little conversation still made me laugh when I thought about it later. And then God used it as a chance to send a little reminder my way, like He seems to do so much.
My son didn’t know what was coming, but he was excited and was looking forward to it (whatever ‘it’ was). He didn’t care that he didn’t have all the details mapped out beforehand. He figured there must be something good coming since everybody else seemed excited. Of course, missing class to have the pep rally wasn’t a bad thing either.
God wants us to be the same way, whether we’re heading to a pep rally, going to work, or spending time with our family or friends. He knows what’s coming, so it doesn’t matter whether we do or not. We can be excited – even if we feel like we’re living in the dark – because God is in control and has great things in store for us. Granted, we’ll have problems and sad times along the way. But once we get past all the things on this earth, we’ll be part of the biggest celebration (dare I say pep rally?) of all in creation.
Like our son said, I have no idea exactly what that will be like. But I know I’m going to have fun!
Pom-poms, anyone?
