Haggai 2:18-19 “On this eighteenth day of December–the day when the foundation of the LORD’s Temple was laid–carefully consider this: I am giving you a promise now while the seed is still in the barn, before you have harvested your grain and before the grapevine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have produced their crops. From this day onward I will bless you.” The Israelites laid the foundation for the new Temple and that same day God gave them a promise to bless them! God didn’t wait until the Temple was finished, nor did He wait until it was partially done. All that had been done was the foundation… but isn’t that the most important and most difficult part? When you build a building it always seems that the foundation takes the longest. The digging and preparing and all that seems to take forever. Then they have to pour the concrete for the foundation to make it strong and firm so the house doesn’t fall over. But once that foundation is done, the rest seems to go much quicker. Once that foundation is laid, there’s a commitment to finish. Maybe it’s the same with us. Building the foundation for growth is probably the hardest because it requires us to go through testing and difficult situations so that we soften up enough for God to work in us. We have to learn it’s not about us and that we can’t do it all alone and that we aren’t the center of the universe. But if we’ve committed to getting through that really painful part of the process, we show that really do want to grow. So, God doesn’t wait until we’re finished. He doesn’t wait until we’re perfect and all that growth is done. He doesn’t wait until the walls are up or until we’re making it all look pretty. The base foundation has been laid, the commitment is there, and God blesses us in the beginning. That’s pretty cool, I think. It’s a little encouragement to go on.