“Look ahead but don’t anticipate.” When we’re riding horses, that’s an important lesson to teach. You want the horse to look ahead for what’s coming next, but not to assume he or she knows what you’ll ask for next. One mistake a lot of riders make is practicing a succession of moves so many times in the same way that the horse makes the second move on his own.

Many riders ask their horse to back up a step after he stops, to make sure he has quit moving forward. But if you’re on a steep trail and you have to stop, you don’t want your horse backing over the edge.

Advent is a time of looking ahead to Jesus Christ’s coming in a whole new way – not just to the end times, but also to how Christ will come into our personal lives in the year ahead. But we can’t anticipate in what form He will come, or what God will ask for next. Advent is a time of looking ahead – but who knows where God will lead us?

Your partner in ministry,

Betsy Schwarzentraub