Growing up, Christmas Eve tended to be a bigger deal in my house than Christmas Day. I’m not sure why that was. We’d spend the day getting the house ready for the festivities. As the day went on, the dinner smells grew stronger.
I don’t remember many big Christmas meals, we would usually lay out a nice buffet spread and spend the evening hanging out. Christmas Day was usually sustained on the leftovers from that buffet.
Christmas Eve evening (is that how we say it?) would include a trip to our Church Christmas Eve service, then a race home to get the festivities started. Following the Christmas story, and the opening of the buffet, we’d open our family presents. (Decades later my wife still finds it odd that we did that on Christmas EVE). Some instruments would come out, and we’d start singing some Christmas songs. If one of the kids had a new song they had learned, we made sure to sing it. (Have you ever had to survive a 2nd year violin student playing “Jingle Bells”). But, that never lasted too long, because we loved talking. And singing got in the way of the talking.
We’d pull out the board games and play well into the night. Eventually we’d be sent off to our bedrooms, where we’d stare at the ceiling; anticipation keeping us from sleep.
Anticipation
I think that’s the word that best sums up what made Christmas Eve so special. There was something exciting coming on Christmas morning. As big of a celebration Christmas Eve was… it peaked on Christmas morning. And in the middle of that celebration… I was supposed to sleep.
The anticipation I feel for Christmas is influenced considerably by the experiences I had in the past. Warm memories of past Christmases only heighten the anticipation of what’s coming.
If there is one way I want to celebrate this Christmas, it’s in anticipation.
In Luke 2, we’re introduced to Simeon:
Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.
Simeon was waiting with anticipation. The people of Israel had been waiting over 400 years to hear from God. They had stories from times past, and those stories gave them hope as they anticipated what was coming.
What came was not exactly what they expected. It was better.
I want to have that excitement and anticipation. Not just about Christmas day, but about the next 364 days. I have plans for 2015. But I want to have that anticipation for what God is going to come and do in my life this year.
The word became flesh, and now lives in me.
God… I’m anticipating how you are going to show up in the world this year.