Anticipation

The stockings are hung.  The presents are wrapped. As a mom, I can't wait for tonight, when the kids nestle in their beds and we fill the stockings and put the gifts under the tree.  It's just as hard for me to sleep on Christmas Eve as it is for them.  We've always had so much joy here on Christmas morning.

The anticipation will finally end in the fulfillment of many Christmas wishes.

The paper will get picked up off the floor.  The surprises will be made known.  There will be contentment and peace as everyone admires and plays with their gifts.  I'll sigh with happiness and something akin to relief.

I'll sit by the tree tomorrow night, watching the fire, and think "It's all over.  And so it begins again."  I can't deny that Christmas is so full of anticipation and excitement. But it's always a little anti-climatic at the end of the day.

For the past few years I've had a deepened sense of awe during the season of Advent.  It's the season of waiting, leading up to Christmas day. I focus my heart spiritually on the coming of Christ as a baby.  I ponder what the world was like for the ones awaiting the Messiah.  And I find it's not at all unlike my world as I wait for the Messiah to come... again.

Just as all creation burst forth in song and exclamations of praise when Jesus Christ was born, now it groans as it waits for his glory to once again fill the earth.  This season of waiting for the wonders and joy of Christmas day only seeks to remind me that I am still waiting. And what I wait for will not find it's fulfillment in tomorrow.  It's only a shadow of what is to come when Jesus comes again.

Tomorrow night we begin the Christmas countdown all over again.  Another 365 days til next Christmas.  The waiting will begin again.

But when what I truly wait for comes, that will be it.  There will be nothing anti-climatic about it.  The hopes and fears of all the years... will be met in Him that night. That morning. Whenever it may be.  Nothing else will matter and the longing inside will cease once and for all.  The wait will be over.

May God's grace and peace and love be with us all as we wait.

"Glory to God in highest. And on earth, peace and good will toward all men."

Luke 2:14