Circus

I am so excited. I can’t wait. The suspense is killing me. I get to take Sam to the circus tonight. And even better, he doesn’t even know about it yet. He will be so excited. A while back we were reading a book about the circus and he asked if he could go. I want to tell him but I know he would be crazy and uncontrollable for the rest of the day. So I must wait, but the anticipation is mounting.

In fact, I don’t know who is going to be more excited—Sam or me. I can’t wait to watch him run around and point with glee. He will be talking about it for days.

As I write this, it makes me think of God and His desire to give us gifts. When Jesus talks about prayer in Luke 11, He gives us this image of our Heavenly Father giving the best gift. He ends His words in verse 13 with “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

Sometimes God gives us things without us asking. These unexpected gifts remind us that He is there and He is loving. There is so much that He does for us that we don’t deserve.

Most of the time though, like Jesus says in verse 13, He wants us to ask. He wants the time with us. He desires a relationship with us. He doesn’t want to just give us the ticket to the circus, He wants to go with us.

He also wants to give us the best. Not what we think is best, but the best. Often times we don’t know what the best is. If I asked Sam what the best thing I could give him tonight, I don’t think he would ever think of the circus. We don’t know what the best is at times. As 1 Corinthians 2:9 says, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him...” God has prepared things for us that are greater than we can ever imagine. He loves us that much and wants us to ask.

Jesus tells us that God’s best for us is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the best because it is God Himself. Only the Holy Spirit can bring out all that God wants to do in us. Only He can transform us to be like Jesus in every way. And there is so much more that the Holy Spirit does in our lives. I just don’t have room here.

I can’t wait for tonight, and when I think about it even more, I can’t wait to see what God wants us to do.