What are you waiting for today, this Christmas Eve? For Santa, hoping you were good enough all year to be on the nice list? I remember worrying. Yes, worrying, and waking up earlier than any of my siblings and trying to sneak downstairs just to peek. I never thought there would be anything for me. I must have been really bad, or thought I was. When I saw I wasn't forgotten, everything inside me just came alive! I made it another Christmas! We were told so much about “naughty and nice”. It made inroads in my soul long after I grew up and was too old for Santa.
Are you waiting for the perfect Christmas Day where everyone will be glad to see you and the food will all be perfect and no one will offend anyone, by intention, or by ignorance? A day where you will have to neither apologize or forgive anyone? And you will all like every gift received? I guess that would be a great day, wouldn’t it?
Some are waiting for it to be over. A time of year where memories, often sad ones, are unwrapped and in front of you all season. Empty chairs at tables and voices that have been stilled bring sorrow as we go through the motions on the outside, smiling within.
Perhaps you are waiting for something more substantial. Maybe this will be the year you realize all that Christmas really means. Most have heard the account of Jesus birth, been to candlelight services, and sung the carols. It was all inclusive in my home growing up; Santa and Jesus side by side. But I never really understood it till later, when it became personal.
Personal you ask? I thought Christmas was about Christ, the reason for the season? Well, yes, it is, He is….but, so am I and so are you and so is everyone. You see, if there was no need for a Savior, He never would have had to come. God could have continued to rule from heaven a people who gave Him all the honor, and have perfect lives besides. So that to me makes Christmas about all of us. He came for all of us.
The sad part is that so many don't know why it is about them. They have never allowed it to become personal. They know the story, but they don't know the relevance. They have sung the carols, but never knew the words. They know the baby, but they don't know the King.
So what are you waiting for? Signs in the sky? It was a star. Voices in the dark? It was angels. God to appear to you? The word was made flesh. Peace and hope to fill you? Jesus is all of it.
We were all on the naughty list. Jesus came for me and you. It is about us giving praise to God for sending Jesus, the light of the world.
So I wish you all a Merry Christmas! And the living hope that all things sorrowful in this life are redeemed because of Jesus coming on Christmas Day.
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