Quiet held my ears hostage. They longed to break free just long enough to hear one tiny tinkling bell or a softly pawing hoof. My thin blanket wrapped around my young self like an anaconda preparing for lunch. I rolled this way and that – countless times. Then, I sat up on my knees and rocked quietly to the music in my head. “Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way.” Next, I passed the time by standing on my bed and dancing a jig, only to accidentally (but safely) perform a perfect backflop. I sighed with boredom and hoped my parents didn’t hear all my locomotion.
I knew the rules. My feet were not to touch the floor until the sun woke up. This waiting wasn’t for me, so I recounted all the clues my parents had given me about my gifts and got even more excited. Why couldn’t I be like my baby brother? He went to bed early and was snoozing like … well … like a baby. Why couldn’t Santa just come already?
Years later, Christmas Eve warmed my heart and caused my face to light up as sleep ran from my children. Great anticipation focused their attention with laser-like precision. They looked forward to everything awaiting them and hoped to receive exactly what they wanted. Their anticipation of something wonderful always fills me with delight.
Anticipation is as old as time. I can’t imagine the great anticipation God must have felt as He prepared the world for Jesus. He knew their most incredible gift to mankind was on the way, but they couldn’t unwrap it for quite some time. Fortunately, while they waited, God gave them many hints to ponder by way of the prophets.
Hundreds of years ahead of time, Micah prophesied that Jesus the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. (Micah 5:2) Isaiah foretold of One who would be born of a virgin and called Immanuel. He would bring light and justice to the nations, take us by the hand, and keep us. (Isaiah 7:14; 42:1,6) Hosea said He would spend time in Egypt and then be called out. (Hosea 11:1) Zechariah pointed to the time when the humble king would come riding on a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9) Then, to prove that Jesus was who God said He was, Isaiah prophesied in great detail about the suffering He would endure on our behalf. (Isaiah 53) God dispensed over 300 clues about His most precious gift through Old Testament prophets. Yet, many people continue to leave His gift unopened. It’s a gift God still wants everyone to receive, get excited about, and love.
Satan would like nothing better than to wrap a blanket of ingratitude around those of us who’ve accepted God’s gift, squeezing the life right out of us. He enjoys watching us roll in doubt this way and that. He revels in knocking us to our knees and playing sad tunes in our heads, just waiting for us to flop. He especially loves it when we moan, groan, and sigh about our lives.
If you have opened God’s gift, you know the incredible joy and peace that came wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. You humbly and gratefully accepted Jesus and became excited about Immanuel – God with us! Your focused attention remains solely on your trust in the love of God, the grace of Jesus, and the powerful friendship with the Spirit. What more could anyone want?
Now, with gratitude in our hearts and thankfulness on our lips, we can all live in exuberant anticipation of the next grand gift God has waiting for us!
“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 NIV)
Why doesn’t Jesus just come already?
