Faith and Garbage Trucks.

Today is garbage day. This means that today is Reid's favorite day of the week. The kid is obsessed with trucks, and today is the day that big, noisy blue trucks come rumbling up and down our streets, reaching out with giant, mechanical arms to empty the large cans lined up along the curb (did I mention that Reid also has this weird fascination with garbage cans?). Today truly is a great day. While Reid may not realize that today is Monday, and every Monday is garbage day, he doesn't need to have this information to know the trucks are coming. All he needs is to see the green and blue bins sitting in front of each house, and he knows what that means!

Oh, the excitement when he spotted the clues this morning! We couldn't focus through breakfast, he kept staring out the window, calling "Truck! Truck!" in desperation, wondering where they were! After the meal, he rushed to the door, begging to be let out to search for the beloved conveyors of refuse. Our day was spent at the window, watching and waiting.

All day I reassured him, saying "The truck will come, don't worry. It's not here yet, but we know it is coming. Wait patiently, it will be here. Keep watching, you don't want to miss it!" And so we waited with confidence, knowing that the truck had to come eventually, and we wanted to be ready when it did!

Hebrews 11 defines faith as "being sure of what you hope for, and certain of what you do not see." In Romans 8, Paul says "But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." We could not see the garbage trucks, nor could we hear them yet, but we didn't need to see them in order to know that they were coming. Reid's hope today was not some vague desire that perhaps we might be lucky enough to see a truck drive down our street. No, his hope was not wishful thinking, but a certainty. There was no question in his mind about whether the trucks were coming. He had faith in our garbage trucks, even though he couldn't see them.

And boy was he excited!!! All day it was nearly impossible to tear him away from the window. He would beg and beg until we went outside, and once there, he just wanted to run up and down the street, looking for the garbage trucks, calling out joyfully for the expected visitors, wanting to be right there for when they did finally arrive.

I want to have faith like Reid's! While garbage trucks seem like a silly example, this is exactly the kind of attitude Paul is describing in his letter to the Romans. Of course, our faith is not in trash-toting jalopies, but rather in the salvation afforded in Jesus Christ. We look forward to the day when Christ shall return to claim His own.

Paul says "we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved... Creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed."

Of that day, Jesus says "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done... Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter into the city. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers, and the immoral persons, and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying... Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost."

"Therefore, be on your guard because you do not know when the master of the house will return--whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: Watch!"

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