Years ago, when I was a child, we would anticipate the great television “classics” of Christmas: “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, “Charlie Brown’s Christmas”, and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. We’d plant ourselves in front of the television for the evening when one of the four networks we could pull in with the TV antenna (CBS, ABC, NBC and CBC) would broadcast the holiday show. I remember sitting by the fresh Christmas tree in the living room and seeing the string of fat, colored bulbs hanging from the eaves outside the window.
We knew the stories by heart, we knew not only the beginning, middle and end, but many of the commercials that appeared annually with the shows. It didn’t matter. Seeing these specials on television was a part of the wait. Christmas was coming.
Today, if we have a desire to watch a decades-old Christmas special, we can search for it on multiple channels at multiple times. And if that isn’t convenient, we can find it on line or download it to our computer, television or e-device. There is no waiting.
Rituals come and go through the ages, and if we are fans of Christmas television “classics”, the ritual of waiting for the night of broadcast and waiting through the commercials is over.
However, the ritual of waiting for the revelation of Emmanuel, God come to earth, is not. Advent, the four weeks before Christmas Day, is a time to prepare and to wait in anticipation. Sometimes we let the preparation of home, meals, parties and gifts sweep us away from the preparation of heart.
What if, for a season, we reclaim a portion of our childhood experience of waiting? What if we mark times during Advent to quietly wait, not for the television shows that we know from beginning to end, but for Jesus, who we know to be the beginning and end? Anticipation enriches the wait. Let our wait for Christmas find space for anticipating Jesus Christ, God come to earth.
Blessings,
Pastor Sherry
No comments:
Post a Comment