Expectatations

On October 25^th at 8:40am Tricia and I had our second son Caleb John Jackson. What a wonderful gift from God he is. We are so thankful for the way God has healed him from his pneumonia and made him into a healthy little boy.

With the birth of both my sons, I immediately had some expectations for each of them. My hope is that both would be passionate pursuers of Jesus Christ, instrumental in the building up of His Kingdom and great football players. I even have their life planned out for them (hey, I didn’t say this is healthy). After being stand out quarterbacks at Preble High School, one will go to the University of Missouri and the other to the University of Wisconsin. All four years they will lead their teams to the playoffs and then will meet in the national championship game, each winning it twice. After that they will both play for the Packers and win a few Super Bowls while sharing the MVP trophy.

What do you think? These are realistic expectations right? O.K. before you encourage me to seek therapy, let me share with you about another father who had high expectations of his boy.

Many of you are familiar with how the Christmas Story began and what effect it must have had on Joseph. After finding out that his fiancé was impregnated by someone else, broken hearted and angry, Joseph decided to call off his wedding to Mary. Before he had a chance to announce this decision, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Mat. 1:20-21) This message was further confirmed when the shepherds and Magi visited praising God for baby Jesus. Also when Jesus was presented at the temple and Simeon and Anna proclaim Jesus as the means of salvation for the gentiles and redemption for Jerusalem. My guess is that very early on in Jesus life, all these experiences led Joseph to have very high expectations of his boy.

Baby Jesus was not merely expected to lead the Packers to a Super Bowl win, but to do something far greater! While my expectations of my sons may be too high, I want to challenge all of us that our expectations of Jesus are probably too low! We often think of Jesus merely as a moral example (WWJD) and a ticket to heaven. However, this Birthday Boy is much more than that, He is Savior, Redeemer and King. Therefore He deserves our worship, gratitude and service every month of the year.