Christmas Eve is probably one of the most anticipated days of the year in the United States. Kids have been out of school for a week or two, homes are beginning to fill with family and friends arriving to celebrate Christmas together, and everyone is eagerly anticipating a day to celebrate. The day is filled with expectations of joy, happiness, and making memories together.
But try to imagine what Joseph’s “Christmas Eve” might have been like. He wasn’t eagerly looking forward to a turkey dinner with family, he was waiting on his wife to give birth to a child. He wasn’t concerned with whether or not the tree was decorated, he was simply trying to keep the sheep from eating the stuffing out of their coming child’s bed. As if that wasn’t enough, Joseph knew that his wife was giving birth to the Son of God. No pressure there, right?
I remember when our oldest child was born. She would be the first grandchild on either side of our family (which is code for spoiled) and my and my wife’s parents were eager to welcome her into the world. My wife and I went into the final weeks of her pregnancy with excitement, and more than a little trepidation. As first time parents I’m sure that we were more worried about what we didn’t know than what we did.
As dawn breaks on Christmas Eve, what are the expectations we have? Are we simply looking forward to another day with our family and friends, 24 more hours of keeping the electric fence up around the tree so nobody sneaks a peek? Or are we filled with other expectations? Do we look forward to celebrating once more the cycle of remembrance that stretches across Christmas and Easter? What are our expectations this Christmas season?
Have we come to expect little out of God? Do we ask him to meet our needs and nothing more? Do we minimize our problems to God, thinking that we are so small as to be insignificant to him? Don’t! Each of us matters to God. Do our expectations measure up to our God? This is the same Creator who spoke the universe into being, the same God who parted the waters of the Red Sea, the same Father who gave his only Son so that we would have everlasting life. Amazing doesn’t have to be on such a grand scale either. Amazing can be the simple touch of a friend, unexpected help with a bill, a shoulder to cry on, or the love of a child. He has the ability, the desire, to do amazing things in our life, but do we ever expect him to do them? Each Christmas, those expectations begin with a baby.
This Christmas Eve, let’s look at the birth of our Savior as more than the same story we’ve heard before. Instead of expecting to use this last day before Christmas to finish up all those tasks we didn’t have time for, let us use it to prepare for the coming of our King tomorrow. May the last thoughts that go through our minds tonight be the expectation that God can and will do incredible things through our lives which to grow his kingdom, that the coming of the Christ child signals a renewal of our own faith. The words to the an old hymn by Charles Wesley close this better than I could:
Come Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free
From our fears and sins release us
Let us find our rest in Thee
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