I am always happy to see December come. It is my favorite time of the year. I love Christmas music, family gatherings, and all the excitement and fun. I love the anticipation I see in the faces of the children. They know Christmas means good things.
As we age, that anticipation often fades. The holiday season doesn’t always mean good things. Sometimes it means facing the holidays alone, or without that special someone. Sometimes it means trying to scrape by on minimum wage and still meet the needs of family. Sometimes it means facing the dysfunction of the family in which we were raised, or the one we inherited through marriage.
For me though, Christmas is still a time of anticipation. I find myself reflecting often on that first Christmas. Oh, I know the Christ Child was more than likely not born in December, the stable was probably a cave, and while the shepherds showed up that night, the wise men probably took a bit longer to arrive! But none of that matters to me, what matters is that the Christ Child WAS born, born to a virgin, born in the likeness of man, born with a purpose, and that purpose was the salvation of men.
That is the anticipation I sense at Christmas, a re-kindling of the awareness of why Christ came and what it means to all men. Christmas is when God came to earth to reconcile man unto Himself. Christmas is a time of celebration, a time when we sing with the angels, “Peace on Earth and Good Will to Men.”
It is a time when we come with the Shepherds and bow down to see this wonder of wonders. It is a time when we bring the only gift we have, a heart in desperate need of salvation, and present it before the Babe in the Manger.
