Sunday Devotion: Wishing for Greatness

Janet Rubin

The other parents and I gawk at the gymnasts through the observation window as if we are patrons at an aquarium and the children are some fascinating species of sea life. My little Chloe’s class works on tumbles in one area of the gymnasium—some rolling effortlessly like tires on the road, others only making it halfway over before falling back in defeat. Chloe’s tumbles have improved. Last year she’d make it halfway, then topple sideways. Now she’s one of the “tires.”

I catch her pausing from time to time, and staring open-mouthed at the teenage girls on the other side of the room. Lean, muscular, and more flexible than Gumby, they cartwheel on the high balance beam, swing like monkeys from the bars, and perform jumps and flips that would land me in the ER if I tried them.

Through the glass, I hear the teacher’s muffled voice snapping Chloe to attention. For a while Chloe focuses on her work, but inevitably goes back to observing the big girls. I know she is impressed, inspired, wondering to herself if she too will someday be capable of such feats.

After gymnastics, our next stop is ballet for Cassidy. On our way to her class, we pass the open door of a room where beautiful and graceful teens on Pointe dance like sugarplum fairies. Cassidy slows her pace by the door and rubbernecks as we pass. This year, she is dancing in her first Nutcracker. She starts, like all little ballerinas, as a mouse, but dreams of the day she might be Clara.

My daughters’ feelings resemble mine when I read the great authors. Wow! This writing is incredible. Will I ever be capable of weaving such a story, creating such unique metaphors, describing with such eloquence, fashioning such interesting, sympathetic characters?

The answers to our questions depend on several things: Are we willing to work as hard as those we admire did to get to where they are? To fall off the beam, wobble on the toe shoes, and suffer the rejections and rewrites that are necessary on the way? Also, has God gifted us in these areas, and is the pursuit of these dreams His will? If we seek Him, He will show us.

There are spiritual “greats” I admire too—mature Christians I know, missionaries, Bible heroes, and above all, Jesus. As I stumble on the basics of Bible study and prayer, blundering through my Christian walk, I look to these examples and wonder, “Will I ever be like that?” Unlike my writing aspirations, my hope of spiritual perfection is certain. I am a work in progress that will be complete upon arrival in Heaven.

Philippians 1:6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

1 John 3:2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.