"God, please hurry up and..."

         Tonight during our family advent devotions, my niece prayed that "Christmas would hurry up and get here" (she also lovingly thanked God for her family and friends and toys). It was a cute moment and I was thankful we pray with our eyes closed so she would not see my smile. But it made me think of two things. 

         I thought about how so many people were praying the same thing before Jesus was born. There were generations of Jews praying for their Messiah to 'hurry up' and arrive and save them. The Messiah did arrive, albeit in a totally different way than what they thought they were praying for. But God's timing is perfect in everything.

        The other thing I was thinking about during my niece's prayer is how much it sounds like my own prayers. One of my ongoing prayers over the last three years has been for God to 'hurry up'  and get me to Germany. Now that prayer is being answered too! On January 25th I will arrive in Germany for my first term with GEM. In just over a month, my three year prayer will be answered in a totally unexpected way from when I first prayed for God to 'hurry up and get me to Germany'.