The Anticipation of Christmas

The days leading up to Christmas are pure torture for me.  The presents I have bought for my children are still in the shipping boxes that they came in (I do pretty much all my shopping online) sitting there ready to be wrapped and put under the tree.  My children usually each get one special present from us, and we think long and hard about what special gifts to get our children.  The problem is I hate waiting to give it to them.

In fact, I’m so bad that I’m tempted constantly to tell my children what I bought them.  It’s actually a joke with my kids because I will keep talking about their presents and how much they are going to like them.  And then I make up some silly toy (like a Dora bike for Ethan) that they know I didn’t really buy them, and we laugh about it. 

On Christmas Eve, I will painstakingly wrap and arrange the presents so that when my children come down the stairs on Christmas morning, they will see a plethora of presents where there used to be emptiness.

It occurred to me the other day that I bet God had this same excitement as He planned to give His best present to the world.  For hundreds of years, He gave us hints in His holy Word (the book of Matthew gives many of these OT prophecies for us).  You can almost imagine that He is just waiting to let it all out.  Not only that, but we see Him meticulously preparing the world for the arrival of this gift: heavenly messengers, John the Baptist’s birth, and a special star to lead the wise men.   Everything crescendos with the angelic announcement to the shepherds.  It’s like God could finally hold back no longer and shouts out, “Come and see what I’m giving you!!” 

And what a gift—a Savior like no other. 

But the crazy thing is there’s more because the anticipation of a great gift is still ongoing. 

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.” Rev 21:1-7

In case you are imagining a future where we have wings and float around clouds playing harps, we have this text that informs us that God will create a new Earth.  An Earth without pain, loneliness, crying, suffering, or death.  Everything that is wonderful in this world is only a prelude to the perfection of our new Earth.  Just like the Old Covenant of Law was a shadow to the New Covenant offered in Christ (Hebrews 10:1), this Earth is only a shadow of what we will experience when everything will be redeemed.

In C.S. Lewis’s The Last Battle, after the Narnians have experienced the end of their world, they walk through a door into a world that was like the war-torn Narnia, but somehow more. 

“It was the Unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling.  He stamped his right hoof on the ground and neighed, and then cried: ‘I have come home at last!  This is my real country!  I belong here.  This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now.  The reason why we loved Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this.  Bree-hee-hee!  Come further up, come further in!” (213)

You see, the true Christmas, the real Christmas is still ahead.  We are still waiting, but we are waiting in hope with joyful anticipation.  And, one day, when all tears have been wiped away and all wrongs made right, we will have the biggest celebration we can imagine.  Don’t forget this precious gift that is being offered to you.  It is worth the wait!