From Waiting to Wonder

"If Advent is the season of waiting, Christmas is a season of wonder."

Living the Christian year: Time to Inhabit the Story of God by Bobby Gross (p. 64)

See the look of "wonder" on her face?!

Merry Christmas!  

It's full of firsts!  

This is our first Christmas in Malawi. 

The first Christmas I applied sunscreen before heading out to church.

The first Christmas away from family.

The first Christmas without a real Christmas tree.

The first Christmas we prayed for rain instead of snow.

The first Christmas we were sweating because of heat and humidity rather than a wood fire.

The first Christmas I've given rice, groundnuts and corn flour as a gift.
The first Christmas my fruit salad was dominated by pineapple and mango rather than apples.

It's been a joy-filled day of celebration of the birth of Jesus, our King, our Savior.  That is the same!

We light the Christ candle in the middle of the Advent wreath on Christmas!
(I think you are then not supposed to light the other four, but I like them lit :)

In between the busyness of baking cookies, preparing special foods and hiding gifts (with wrapping paper fairly expensive, we got creative with a scavenger hunt!), I've been thinking about Jesus.

The incarnation (God coming to physically be with us as one of us) is a wondrous mystery.  "The Word became flesh and lived among us." John 1:14.  Why would God do such a thing as to leave the splendor and comfort of heaven an stoop way down to earth to be with us -- a wayward people?  Sure, He made us, but we are constantly turning from looking at Him to looking at our own selfish ways of doing things.  He did it because although we ignore or even avoid our heavenly Father God, He still loves us.  The way I think about it, the incarnation is God's way of saying Hey, remember me?  I'm your Daddy and I still love you.  Let me live with you.  Let me teach you.  Let me love you in everyday and miraculous ways.  Don't run away, I still love you.  I'm here, please come sit by me.

What?!?  Is that really God saying and doing such things? God who dreamed up making this world and all that is in it, ending with His proudest creation, man and woman?  Yep.  Because man and women didn't stay faithful to Him, He reached down to make a way for things to be right again because although it hurt Him for people to turn away from Him, He still loved them.  He still loves us.

There were many people who were actually waiting for a Savior to come make things right.  God had sent messengers to tell people He promised to send a Savior who would make a way of reconciliation with God possible.  Year after year, decade after decade, generation after generation passed as people kept watch and waited for this Messiah to come -- not knowing how or when or who -- with just a few clues to go on.  That is why Advent, the time leading up to Christmas, is a season of waiting.  Jesus' coming was anticipated for a long time.  A long time that was hard to wait!  One of my favorite Advent hymns says it well:

Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus

This red flower bloomed in our yard between Christmas Eve
and Christmas day. Although it's not the poinsettia we are used
to seeing at Christmas, the color red reminds us of Jesus'
reason for coming to earth - to set us free by dieing in our place,
forgiving us for all our wrongs and making us right with Him.

By Charles Wesley (1745)

Come, thou long expected Jesus,
born to set your people free;
from our fears and sins release us;
let us find our rest in thee.
Israel's strength and consolation,
hope of all the earth thou art;
dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart.

Born your people to deliver,
born a child and yet a King,
born to reign in us forever,
now your gracious kingdom bring.
By your own eternal Spirit
rule in all our hearts alone;
by your all sufficient merit
raise us to your glorious throne.

She was free to run through the grass without shoes!
What an expression of freedom on her face.
To come to Jesus as a child is part of the wonder to which we are called.

Why do we have joy at Christmas?  Because Jesus, although just born, has come to set us free!
What do you need to be set free from this Christmas season? What joy do you have?

Take some time (only 3 minutes) to view the history of waiting for the long expected Jesus in this really neat video by The Skit Guys.  It is worth a few views as it has some evolving artwork depicting the biblical story to Christ's birth.  It really ties history together.  Soak it in and REJOICE!