Anticipation...................

I love Christmas. It always makes me feel like a kid. And that’s the way it should make us feel. Remember being a little kid and how you couldn’t wait for Christmas to get here? The waiting sometimes would drive me crazy…..and I’m a patient person. I can even remember on Christmas Eve after we got back from my grandparents (we always did Christmas Eve – dinner and presents with my Memaw and Pepaw Brown) and not wanting to go to sleep but knowing you had to so Christmas morning would come……then laying in bed NOT being able to fall asleep. The anticipation of Christmas morning. Then, finally I would fall asleep just to wake up at the crack of dawn……….only to have to WAIT some more. In the Early family my wonderful parents liked to capture every detail of our waking up and walking into the den to see Santa on film. SO once we woke up we ran and woke them up. THEN, we had to go back to bed and pretend to wake up while they were filming (on the old 8mm cameras with the very BRIGHT light). And then we were filmed walking in the den with our very big smiles…..FINALLY. All the waiting was always worth it. My parents made sure we always had a fun and memorable Christmas!!! Oh, and neither my brother nor I went in to acting but, boy, we sure had the practice!!

Then, the fun, fun, fun memories of my kiddos going through the very same thing. I didn’t own my first video camera until the year Matt was born (14 years ago this Christmas) so Steph and Shan escaped the Oscar Performances until they were 12 and 5……..but I didn’t make them go through the “wake up” performance – just captured them opening presents and all the joy they experienced.

All this waiting…………what are we waiting for?

So, what am I waiting for? What are you waiting for? Ultimately if you know Jesus, you are waiting for Him to return and call His Church / His Bride / His People HOME!

I am currently doing a Christmas devotional called Preparing for Jesus by Walter Wangerin, Jr. which started yesterday all the way through 12 days after Christmas. My dear friend and former boss, Beth gave it to me one year and I haven’t done it in some time. I am already enjoying it so much.

Excerpt from Preparing for Jesus:

Mark 13: 32 thru 37……..
32 "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. 34 It's like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. 35 "Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: 'Watch!' "

The word Advent is derived from the Latin adventus, which means “the approach” or “the arrival”. The verb is advenio: “I arrive. I come. I am coming.” Who is coming?

As a season of the Christian year, Advent is ancient. It goes back at least to the middle of the 6th century. Already then it’s observance defined not only the ONE who was coming, but also those who were faithfully and self-consciously waiting. It defined the peculiar people who looked forward to the coming of the One. Who is coming? Who awaits him?

The Son of man, He is coming. Jesus. That one. Him. And we are the people who await Him. You and I. Since it was for us He died, we are the ones who wait in love. And since He ascended to heaven with promises to return, we wait in faith – for at the next and final Advent, Jesus will take us as friends, as brothers and sisters into His house forevermore.

Finally, then, how shall we prepare? In these days, while yet there are days and time, by what activity should we make ourselves ready?

Why, by meditating on His first coming – for though the future may be hidden from us the past is not, and the one can teach us the other.

The story of the birth of Jesus is open before us. We have a spiritual and holy account of the time when God Himself directed preparations for that first coming of His Son into the world.

Behold, I bring you good news of great joy!!

So let us enter the story one more time. In this present season of Advent let us experience the Infant’s Advent in the past and so make ourselves ready for the Advent of the Lord of Glory in the future.