One of the early lessons in life that Christmas time brought me was learning to wait. The month or two just before Christmas was not a good time to be asking for things around our house. The answer from my parents, if I asked for something in the days leading up to Christmas, was, usually, “Well, let’s wait and see what Santa brings you for Christmas.” As I was growing up, you didn’t see Santa in the stores to tell him what you wanted for Christmas, you waited to see what Santa would bring you for Christmas, and if he brought you something for Christmas, that was good. Those were the war years of the 1940s, and there was not a huge pile of things around the Christmas tree, but there were always some things there on Christmas morning. As I recall, I never knew what Santa might bring, but it was always good, whatever he brought. So, even though there was always a lot of waiting when Christmas time was coming, I don’t recall ever being too badly disappointed. I didn’t always get exactly what I wanted, but I always enjoyed what I got. So, I guess I came to feel that having to wait is not necessarily a bad thing.
At our house, “presents” from Santa showed up Christmas morning, then there were presents from each other, and from Grandpa and Grandma, and from our aunts anduncles and cousins. Many years, the larger family drew names. That way we didn’t each have to buy presents for every individual, but everyone got a present. Although we were always curious about what was in the wrapped packages under the tree, and who had our name, we were never encouraged to try to guess, or to shake packages to try to tell what was in them. We were always told, “Let’s wait until Christmas to fi nd out what’s in the packages!” “Let’s wait until Christmas to see who had your name!” Of course, waiting for Christmas meant waiting a l-o-n-g time. But, I think we found that the waiting, even waiting a long time, was not so bad, and that many good things come about in life after we wait.
I recall that it took me almost forever to grow up. I was always wishing I was bigger and more able to do things my Dad could do, and as a little boy I was always wishing I knew how to do things that I really wasn’t big enough for yet, like driving the car. I was just sure, by the time I was 10, that I could drive the car if my folks would just let me. But I had to wait.
Well, soon I was allowed to drive our Ford tractor, butnot the car. By the time I was 13 years old, I had been imagining myself driving and waiting to get to drive for at least 50 years. I had all the moves in my head, just not in my hands and feet. Anyway, when the day finally come to make the moves with my hands and feet, and to actually drive the car, the moves mostly worked, and it was good, even after the long wait.
In a real way, life on the farm is about waiting. We are waiting for rain. We are waiting for winter to be over with. We are waiting for spring and for time to plant garden. We plant garden and crops and we wait for the plants to sprout. We wait to see if we get a good stand of corn. We wait for the little chickens to feather out. We wait to move the pullets to the summer house, and we wait to see if they turn out to be good laying hens. We wait for the hay field to be ready to mow. Then we wait for the hay to dry enough to bring into the barn. We wait for the water in Otter Creek to warm enough for swimming. We wait for the new baby calves to be born. We wait for the harvest. We are always waiting, and hoping, and dealing with what happens with the things we’ve been hoping for.
I have the feeling that when the Almighty built “waiting” into life, and into growing and maturing and achieving and purposing and hoping and appreciating, He knew what he wasdoing. Although it is often hard for us to wait for what we hope for, many of the best things in life only come by waiting, by planting a seed and seeing it grow, by starting projects that take time to complete, by thinking in the long term of goals that endure, and by not always expecting instant gratifi cation.
We used to think more about “saving up” for things we hoped eventually to buy. Now the temptation is to just charge it to a credit card and pay it out.
So by that we actually end up paying 20 percent more for what we buy, and in the end have less than we might have had if we had waited and “saved up” fi rst.
As Christmas time nears, I’m thinking of those people in the earlier days who waited for the Messiah, and I’m thinking of all those many things in my life that have been worth waiting for. The Holy Book says, they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength … they shall walk and not faint!
Contact Jerry Nichols by email at [email protected], or call him at 621-1621.
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Editor’s note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is an award-winning columnist, a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history. He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.
Community, Pages 5 on 12/11/2013