To My Someday Daughter

I got this idea from Hilary Yancey, who wrote a similar letter when she was a similar age and now loves and cares for the very special little girl she didn’t know she was writing to. You should check out her letter, and the other posts that go with it, and also maybe her book. But without further ado, here is mine.

Dear daughter,

The other day, I saw a mom post on Instagram about her son turning seven. There was a cute picture that I’m sure only captured a glimpse of his growing personality and a description of the day he was born. I read it, and reawakened my longing for you. I can’t wait to have a seven-year-old, I thought to myself.

Darling, you are even less than a twinkle in my eye, and all my friends think I’m crazy for how much I want you now. But all our lives on earth are about patience, about waiting, and at this moment before you exist, the Lord is strengthening those virtues in my heart. Waiting is hard, little one. You’ll find that out someday, when you’re standing at my hip in the grocery store while I decide whether the organic brand is worth it, and all you want to do is go home already. I’ll tell you to be patient then, a little absentmindedly, and your waiting muscles will be stretched and sore.

It’ll happen again, when you like a boy, and you really want to tell him flat out because he keeps missing all your hints, but you also want to see his courage and commitment in asking you out. He might, or he might not—and you’ll learn a little bit about patience either way.

You’ll have countless moments like this—waiting for the acceptance letter to college, waiting for your wedding day to finally arrive, waiting for the right job, waiting for babies—and the longing you experience in these seasons will remind you of the waiting you’re doing with all our brothers and sisters for Jesus to return. All of our waiting is meant to remind us of this.

Today, I listened to Romans 8 on the train, over and over again, because I couldn’t find the energy to do much real studying today. You’ll have seasons like that, too, when you just need to let God’s Word roll over you like waves, again and again. So I looked out the window and got lost in thought and let the words wash over me. I didn’t pay attention to all of them, but one part caught me every time:

For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. (Rom. 8:19-23)

The whole world is waiting, dear one, for the day when we’re redeemed, when all our longings are satisfied and everything is set right by the reign of our King Jesus. Remember that, on the days when all your unmet desires press on you fiercely and you ache to be fulfilled. Eventually, Jesus will meet them all.

I love you already.

Love,

Your mom