Every year, it seems the time goes by faster and faster. Another season of gifts, activities, and opportunity. It’s easy for me to get lost in all of this flurry and miss sight of the promise and reflection of advent. Many light candles each week in December as they reflect and remember the long expectations of faithful believers for the promised birth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
In these dark days, fewer and fewer people have time for candle lighting. Instead we struggle to get through another toxic family gathering. We spend our days gripped by fear and depression. Instead of excitement, dread fills our heart. Instead of waiting expectantly, we brace ourselves for the familiar feelings of let down and disappointment which may permeate the holiday season.
The Lord has been bringing to me a message of Hope this year. I keep hearing messages addressing the clear distinction between expectations and expectancy. These similar words are light years apart. Expectations bring disappointment, while expectancy rooted in Christ is living in hope.
I confess to watching my share of Hallmark movies. Who doesn’t love a happy ending or twelve for that matter. My husband rolls his eyes at these simple movies. To him, each one feels like Groundhog Day. I find the happily ever after stories uplifting, but the Lord has shown me they can fuel my expectations for the holidays. After all, who doesn’t want to be chosen, loved, cherished and lavished with kindness and the occasional tiara?
There is only one problem; The world is full of broken, selfish people like me. So, when we open the gift we really didn’t want, don’t get invited to the neighbors’ Christmas party, or find our stocking so empty we wish for coal–disappointment follows like the caboose on a train. This is the set up expectations create. Very few of us get those perfect, supportive and loving families mixed with the perfect resolution of all our trials like the Hallmark stories.
When I choose to live in the here and now, honest about my shortcomings and the limitations of others, I don’t set myself or others up with my unrealistic expectations. Then if I will add to that the hope I have as a believer. I will go into each day and circumstance expectant to see the hand of God. I will wait for the Lord to show Himself. I will let Him work in and through me and I will trust that even the painful stuff will be used for my good. This shift of posture changes EVERYTHING. I have never seen anyone wait in hope for the Lord and be disappointed. But I have seen the wreckage that a runaway caboose of expectations can cause.
I pray that you will simplify any tasks of the season you can, slow down and then wait expectantly on the God who sees, cares and is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. For the winds of this life will forever shift, but the Love of God is unchanging. Light a candle and lift your prayers; then wait with confident certainty for Immanuel (God with us) to meet you this Christmas.
May yours be Merry and Bright!
