Vacation...

My autistic brother David, who HATES change, loves to go on vacation! I personally think it's because he realizes there is a big world out there that he hasn't seen and he wants to see as much of it as possible.

We are in the planning stages of a family vacation, most likely to Florida. We've done the Disney thing numerous times so we are looking at SeaWorld and Universal Studios for this trip. If all goes according to what we are planning, we will leave for Florida in the middle of February, six months from now.

David is incredibly nosy and has been looking over my shoulder while I'm at the desktop and has pulled the laptop out of my lap to see what I'm working on. If he catches me looking at a vacation related site he'll immediately hold up two fingers in the "V" sign - his way of saying vacation. We've tried explaining to him that vacation is at least six months away, but right now it is consuming his thoughts. He'll come running out of his bedroom and wave his "V" fingers at us because he wants to leave now! The allure of an upcoming vacation has taken over his thoughts and he doesn't care about what is going on now. We try to plan our vacations to "tourist traps" during the off-season. The parks are not as crowded and it's easier to manuever David's wheelchair without hitting someone! It's also cheaper to go during the off-season and we like saving money!

So often as a Christian, I act like David with God. I pray and ask God for something specific and I become so consumed with my request that it becomes all I think about. God's timing may be months or even years away from answering, but I lose all focus of the present expecting God to give me my wants NOW! Right now might not be the best season for God's answer to come, but I don't care because my request has taken over my thoughts.

Although we'll probably never get David to understand the gap in time between planning and actually traveling, I hope as a Christian that I can try to trust God during the gap in time between asking and receiving.