Anticipation
Christmas time is a great time of anticipation. Children look forward to a couple of weeks off from school. Parents look forward to the break ending and children returning to school. But, I think there is a great bit of anticipation for all of us as we wait to see what our children or parents have bought us for Christmas.
Sometimes there is a plain square package placed under the tree. It is not too big; not to small; not heavy and not light. It doesn’t rattle and doesn’t move around inside the box. It is one of those presents that the recipient just can’t wait to open. I know you have had one. We all have. It seems that Christmas morning can’t come soon enough in order to find out what that gift can be. Will you like it? Is it something that you’ve really wanted? Sometimes the anticipation can be unbearable.
Oh, but I guess I forget to whom it is that I am writing. You are mature adults. You don’t get giddy with anticipation over a gift under the tree at Christmas. Or, at least, you’ve learned to control your emotions enough to not get carried away. In a way, it is a shame that the anticipation lessens with maturity, because there is still a nondescript package yet wrapped and waiting to be opened by you.
Christmas and its central part as a feast day within the Church Year has not always been the same. Before Christmas was recognized, Epiphany reigned as the most recognized feast day, behind Easter. It is upon Epiphany that the season of Advent was originally based as well as the twelve days of Christmas that fall between December 25 and January 6. While we celebrate the birth of the King on Christmas Day, it is the unwrapping of that child that we celebrate in the Savior of all nations on Epiphany.
“When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.”
Matthew 2:10, 11 (ESV)
The Epiphany Season, which lasts for only six Sundays this year, begins with the manifestation or revealing of the incarnate God in the child Jesus. The Wise Men worship him and give him gifts. They, representing the nations other than Israel, recognize and receive this child of Mary as God come to save them.
We will receive the same unwrapping of our God and Savior this season from the humble abodes of a manger in a stable to the house of a carpenter in Bethlehem, until we shall see him fulfill all righteousness in a baptism with water administered by John, perform the works of God in miracles, and be transfigured in glory upon a mountain as he speaks with prophets of old.
While God did humble himself and take the form of a servant, He did not keep His creation suspended in undue anticipation. He unwrapped His present for us and all the world to see. And as is the case with most gifts; some are excited, some disgruntled, and some just apathetic. May God, who has saved us from our sins by the sending of His Son, also by the power of the Holy Spirit, save us from being disgruntled and apathetic. May he grant us a joy, in the gift that he has given, that reflects from us as much as it did from Moses after he descended from Mt. Sinai. Only let us not be so mature that we feel we must veil that joy from the sight of others.
God bless you in the New Year and bring to completion the joy that He has worked in you to your everlasting salvation.
Soli Deo Gloria, Pastor