(Published as an Instagram Post on 12-17-2020)
And the anticipation builds…
This is the first year my oldest kids voiced their understanding that waiting for Christmas was what made the day so special when it finally came.
Anticipation is a powerful joy-multiplier.
And in many ways, the time of looking forward to this holiday is a gift of time given to look inward, back, and forward –
INWARD at our hearts and lives, making careful evaluation, taking stock of whether we truly understand and cherish the gift of a Christ given to us, preparing room in our hearts just as He made room in His for us, welcoming His reign and inviting Him as rightful King of our lives.
BACK at the astonishing mercy on a broken human race who needed a Savior, expected a Conqueror, and got both – but not as they expected. The Utmost King humbled Himself to become a fragile baby born in scornful scandal and rejected even before His birth – “no room for them at the inn.”
Outcasts and celestial beings both worshipped at His birth:
All are welcome, and worship is the only appropriate response.
FORWARD to the time to come when He will return to dwell among His people once more, this time not as sacrificial Lamb but reigning Lion, when the celebration will be unprecedented and truly, deeply glorious and the joy will be perfect.
Our anticipation of Christmas is a picture of the anticipation we should hold in our hearts every day – He has come and He will come again.
We anticipate Christmas with a mere shadow of the true and weighty joy that is to come.
Even so, come.