For all who wait, for all who hunger, for all who've prayed, for all who wonder . . .
For all who wait,
for all who hunger,
for all who've prayed,
for all who wonder!
These lyrics are my favorite this season in a song called, “The Light of the World” by Lauren Daigle. When I blast the song in my car I want to raise my hand and say, “Me, me, me, me!”
Anticipate means “to expect; look forward to; be sure of”. One of the best scenes in my favorite Christmas movie, Family Man, is when a young married couple wakes on the morning of their wedding anniversary and while the husband is getting ready for work the wife jumps out of the bed, grabs the anniversary gift she had tenderly picked out for him and waits for him to return. As she sits on the bed she is bursting with excitement as she can hardly wait to give it to him. As he enters the room she is literally bouncing on the bed, shaking the wrapped gift and beaming from ear to ear. Then she places the gift in front of him as she beats the top of it like a drum! “Open it!” she exclaims expressing that he won’t even believe what awaits!
Every year as the floor beneath the Christmas tree begins to mount with presents there is always that exchange of words between certain loved ones. “Come on! Just give me a hint!” Okay, I’ll give you a small clue but you can’t open it ‘til the 25th! I remember as a small child whispering into the ears of others what certain presents were and saying, “Promise not to tell?” What is it about the joyous anticipation of gift giving? When you find the “perfect gift” to give someone, the one that will beat all other gifts you can barely stand it as you wait for the 25th to arrive. You give hints and clues, and sometimes even allow the beneficiary to shake and rattle the package as they try to guess what lies beneath the shiny paper and bows. Some don’t mind opening early but you know the ones who strongly dislike opening gifts before Christmas Day? That’s just why! Half of the excitement is the waiting, the anticipation, as the excitement builds, so does the spirit of expectation.
The pregnant pause of 400 years between the Old and New Testament gives the impression that it will be followed by something significant, unbelievably significant. As we open the pages in Luke 1 of the Christmas story we feel this first touch of the Christmas spirit in the air. The anticipation began from words spoken hundreds of years before by the prophet Isaiah. An inkling. A hint. A sort of whisper speaks into the darkness. As we read here, John the Baptist would be the voice that followed the promise of the prophets. “Prepare ye the way of the Lord!” (Isaiah 40:1) The cliff notes would tell us that the world had lived in darkness and spiritual drought for approximately 400 years. God seemed silent for a very long time. But His children (The children of Israel) were holding on to a promise. They were not without hope because you see, He had promised them countless times before in the Old Testament that there would be a Savior, a Rescuer and Redeemer. So to say they were anticipating this gift is an understatement! Anticipation had given birth to longing, an impatience and full expectations in the strongest of sense. This is the prequel to the manger scene unfolding in Luke 2, the unwrapping of the swaddle to behold the King of Kings. Yes, the beneficiaries were astounded, but the joy of the Giver of the gift was indescribable, I’m sure.
Where do we fit in in the story? What are we longing for? Often we get lost in God’s big story of redemption. This is the theme of Luke 1. Anticipation, a foreshadowing of what’s to come. A hint. A clue. Just enough of the story to make us want to know more! God knows we are this way because He made us this way. He’s allowing us to “rattle the gift” to build our joy and excitement. As the Christmas season is all around you begin asking yourself the question, “Where am I in this story?” Get excited as He will begin to give you clues of unimaginable gifts that all the other gifts wrapped under the tree couldn’t hold a Christmas candle to!
