I have now lived through five Montgomery, Alabama, summers, and by the time it gets to the middle of August, I get ready for cooler weather. We have had multiple Trunk or Treats since I’ve been here, where it is in the 90s. This past weekend was a little bit of a tease, though. On Sunday morning, when I woke up, my weather app told me that it was 56 degrees outside. At that moment, I knew that I was going to wear a quarter-zip to church because I was so ready for cooler weather. As I looked further, my app showed me that it was going to be in the mid- to high-80s later that day, but I didn’t care. I was going to wear my quarter-zip. I have been waiting all summer to feel a slight chill in the air, and I was going to enjoy those moments, however brief. That first cool morning almost makes the waiting harder. All summer long, I know cooler weather is coming eventually. But then I step outside one morning and actually feel it. For just a little while, I get a taste of the season I’ve been waiting for—and suddenly I’m ready for all of it.
There’s something about getting a glimpse of what’s coming that makes you long for it even more. Paul describes the Christian life in a similar way in Romans 8. He says we have “the Spirit as the firstfruits,” while we still “groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23). Firstfruits were the beginning of the harvest, but they also pointed toward everything that was still to come. God has given us His Spirit, and we have already begun to experience His presence, grace, and work in our lives—but this is only the beginning.
Sometimes we get glimpses of that work. We see it in baptism. We see it when someone we have prayed for finally sees the truth of God’s Word. We see it when patterns of sin are broken or when the church surrounds someone walking through hardship. Those moments don’t mean everything is as it should be. There is still sin, suffering, and death. But they remind us that God is at work—and He isn’t finished.
Maybe they’re a little like those first cool mornings of fall. They aren’t the whole season, but they remind us that another season is coming. And that made me wonder: Do I long for what God has promised with the same kind of anticipation? I was ridiculously excited about one cool morning because I’m ready for fall. But Scripture describes Christians as people who are “eagerly waiting” for something infinitely better. We have tasted God’s goodness. We have seen glimpses of His work. We know what He has promised. Maybe those glimpses aren’t meant to make us comfortable here. Maybe they’re meant to make us say, “I’m ready for that season.”