Releasing the temporary

I still remember the excitement I felt when I saw the newborn baby doll advertised in the paper. It was so beautiful, and I knew I just had to have one of my very own. So I did odd jobs around the house, saved up my pennies; and before long, I was filling out the order form and sending in my money. In a few weeks, I would be the proud mother of a new baby doll.

I bided my time by scouring second-hand shops to buy “new” clothes and accessories for the baby doll soon to arrive. I checked the mailbox every day, my heart full of hope. That magical box finally made its way to my house, and since I was at a friend’s home for a slumber party, my sisters and mom brought it with them when they came to pick me up.

There was just one problem:  the box was quite a bit smaller than any of us had anticipated. My sisters, a bit disturbed by the tiny parcel, tried to pick out the smallest baby clothes I had collected for the new baby doll and brought them along as well. We all hoped that this doll was just a bit smooshed in the box and would soon air out and become the size of an actual newborn, as we had expected.

But when I tore into the box that I imagined would change my life, I discovered a small, wrinkled doll that more closely resembled E.T. than a real-life newborn. It was downright creepy. We were all a bit afraid of it, but we were determined to make the most of the situation and to enjoy this new doll. So we dressed it up in the itty-bittiest clothes I had bought at the thrift store, but even those hung on it like a mummy’s threads. 

We all laugh about this now, but at the time, it was quite the downer. High Expectations, meet Ugly Reality. That reality is always a bit jarring, isn’t it? It’s such an abrupt fall.

It’s not always something we buy. Often it’s a highly anticipated family vacation or the perfect holiday or that elusive family portrait we hope will be an heirloom that honestly ends up more of a disaster than anything else.

When my sisters and I each had one baby at home, we decided to get a professional picture taken of the three adorable cousins. Since we had two boys and one girl, Mom found the perfect coordinating outfits for each child, driving to several different stores in order to get just the right pieces. 

We had to schedule the photo session a bit after they had been fed so their tummies would be settled but not too long after a feeding because then it would be nap time. We planned for this for weeks ahead of time, trying to make sure it all turned out perfectly. And on the day of the picture, we did everything just so. 

The babies were all in their duck-themed outfits. They were fed and changed. They should have been happy. But they were not. Two out of the three cried throughout the entire photo shoot, while the other one looked scared out of his sweet little mind.

The intersection where expectation meets reality. No one really wants to visit that place. We’d rather breeze on by with our high expectations met every time, wouldn’t we? And yet, we find ourselves here more often than we’d like. And in this past year, reality has been a very stressful thing on many levels. 

One of the most comforting things for me has been to focus on the temporary nature of these trials. Whether they are small, like a disappointing purchase or a bad family photo, or much larger and more consequential, like a physical injury or a string of injustices or a loss of some kind. This is all temporary. It seems so final in the moment, but in the scheme of life, it is all temporary. 

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 that therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

My disappointment over the horror-movie-ready doll faded as I rediscovered the dolls that had already been a part of my collection for a while. The crying baby cousins photo, while never hung in a gilded frame for all to see, did elicit tears of laughter when I found it the other day. 

Turns out, they were minor inconveniences. Temporary. They both seemed like a big deal at the time, but looking back, it was just one blip in one season of my life. Things aren’t always what they seem. Truth is bigger than my feelings. What is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. This has been a rough year, for sure, but it’s not forever. It’s one year. However you are currently struggling, that, too, will not last forever.

Romans 5:1-11 encourages us:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.