Friday, December 11, 2015

Anticipation...



It's come over me several times now since November 16 (the beginning of Celtic Advent - 40 Days from Christmas): That now familiar and welcome sense of anticipation.

As a child I felt it every year too, but exclusively related to presents: anticipating getting stuff.

As a young, non-Christian adult it disappeared. One no longer gets the "good stuff". The wonder and joy is reserved for either the naive or the deluded. What's to anticipate? Traffic, Debt. Un-met family expectations...

But then, within a few years after becoming a Christian - I was surprised to feel that sesnation of excitement return in early December. But it was different. It was quieter and yet more intense. It was now centered on celebrating the key turning point in the story of....Everything...

It began...in the begining. Creation = good and pure. The Conflict came and the Fall corrupted it all. Could there be any hope? For countless eons, the struggle ensued....until....the begining of the happy ending arrived in the form of a human baby.

Just the beginning of the end, mind you, but that's why there is so much anticipation...we know how the story is going to end! Joy and Goodness and Peace and Love win!

Friends, we are in the midst of a Happy Ending Story! Christmas is the promise of that, the deposit, the down payment on the Happy Ending of all Happy Endings!

I remember the hours leading up the births of both of my daughters. They were several years apart, in different buildings, different seasons, with different people present, but each moment contained that deep quiet possibility. Both were moments of promise, of anticipation, mixed with pain, with some anxiety, yes - but that HOPE which permeated it all...

New life does that.

Welcome to the middle of the End of the Greatest Happy Ending ever...

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