Build Up to Christmas
I went with a couple of my friends, to the annual Christmas Tree Elegance show at the Davenport Hotel this weekend. It’s such a lovely, enjoyable way to start the Christmas season. So much elegance. So many magical things to delight our widened eyes.
Such talent and generosity are displayed on behalf of the Spokane Symphony every year. What fun! I bought my tickets and dropped them into the boxes next to my favorite trees.
I have never won a tree with all its accessories and accoutrements, but I do know someone who has. So, I KNOW it is possible to be a winner. Maybe this year … ?
Anticipation
We expect something magical to happen at Christmas time. The Hallmark movies condition us to expect magic, right? When we thrust the shoveling and slippery driving into the backs of our minds, we can enjoy the feathery snowflakes drifting down around us. Falling snow really is pretty, isn’t it?
Fading memories of sleigh rides, caroling parties and hot chocolate drift through the season—even if only on film (we are too busy and sophisticated for those things anymore). However, the thoughts of them are still special. Our living room Christmas lights and firelight are lovely on dark, cold evenings.
As we move though the season, concerts fill the air with beautiful music, some filled with dancing snowmen and red nosed reindeer, and some with words of Truth.
Magic does seem to permeate the season.
Come Closer
As the days of Christmas arrive, we expect to have family and loved ones around us. Sometimes it is fun and beautiful. Snowballs tossed between forts, sleds skimming down hills before Christmas dinner and, of course, opening the gifts perfectly chosen for each person!
But it doesn’t always happen so magically. Perhaps families are estranged and don’t come together to celebrate. Maybe someone is far away this year. For others, it’s the first Christmas that someone is missing for good. Some people are alone.
Then, where is the magic?
What makes us think that something extraordinary should happen in our lives at Christmas?
Except That …
… Something magical DID happen the first Christmas.
God had planned from the origin of earth to send us a Savior. He knew we would screw it all up in sin and would need rescuing.
He planned an innocent entry into our world with angels singing and lighting up the sky with the joy of His advent.
He joined us.
The whole reason we celebrate Christmas.
Jesus!
“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His Name Immanuel, which is translated, ‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:23).
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