Thursday, December 24, 2015

Merry Christmas!


We tucked our little boy in bed after attending our Christmas Eve service. Then with much excitement I uncovered our pile of packages that have arrived over the last few weeks and stacked them carefully under our tree. William did find packages peaking from behind the baby gate, but listened well when I told him "We open those on Christmas day, don't touch, please." I think with his growing experience in gift opening, tomorrow should be fun!

Yesterday I drove into work, noticing the lack of traffic and seeing a few people with suitcases making their way toward the BART station. I could feel their anticipation, knowing the joy that comes deep within when you are going "home." It brought me back to the feeling of taking your last final in college, running to the car and heading home for break. I still experienced that yesterday, even though I wasn't the one traveling. Or getting a long break from work. The anticipation of the holiday still runs deep.


Isn't that what Advent, the season leading up to Christmas, is really all about? The anticipation of the coming King!? The whole universe was and is waiting in anticipation for the King to come and restore all things to the proper state. We are all longing to go to our real and everlasting home. And then he did come. But not as anyone had expected. No, he made his way to earth not with pomp and circumstance or greatness, but as a newborn baby, born to a young, virgin mother in an animal shed.


And we still live with this anticipation because he has promised to come again. This time, not has an innocent baby, seen by a few shepherds; but with greatness and glory and all will see him.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 reads:
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.               
I hope that this season brings a sense of anticipation to your souls, too. And that you pause and ask what you are really anticipating. Is it the Messiah? Or something else?


From our hearts and home to yours, over thousands of miles, we want to wish you a very Merry Christmas! Christ the Savior is born!

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