Strings of colorful lights. Little green Christmas tree cookies. A Christmas movie marathon with my cousins. Monkey bread for breakfast. Being so excited about opening presents that I can’t sleep.
These are some of the traditions that made Christmas a magical time for me as a kid.
Coordinating family schedules. Coming up with enough gift ideas to satisfy grandmothers. The perceived pressure to reciprocate a gift, even though gift-giving is not my love language.
And these are some of the traditions that have taken the magic out of Christmas for me as an adult.
But this year feels different. This year, some of the magic is coming back.
At times, this year has seemed like Narnia under the reign of the White Witch: always winter, but never Christmas.
So why this year to rediscover a sense of wonder about Christmas?
(And, before you ask—no, it’s not because we have been watching extra magical bad cheesy Christmas movies this year… even though we have.)
Really, I think the answer lies in the same reality that prompts the question: God has used the challenging circumstances of this year to open my eyes to the depths of meaning in the Advent season.
The weeks of Advent are an annual time of expectation, of waiting in anticipation. But it is not the same anticipation that kept me up late on Christmas Eve…
Advent is a time to remember the brokenness in our lives and the world around us; we wait expectantly during Advent because we are reminded of our dire need for a savior.
But we take heart because that savior has come: Jesus, the eternal second person of the Trinity, took on flesh and was born of a virgin. Being fully God, there was no sin dwelling in him; he was not condemned from birth the way every other human being since Adam and Eve has been. And yet, being fully human, Jesus—the second Adam—was qualified to die an atoning death as a representative for all of sinful humanity.
Because of his victorious resurrection and triumphant ascension, we trust his promise to come again and redeem all things. And that is why we wait with hope, why we wait with expectation, for that glorious day.
In The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, there is excitement when the ice begins to break because it means Aslan is on the move—the Savior is coming.
We may not have reasonable hope or expectation that the brokenness of this world will improve, but we do have hope that it will not endure forever.
Advent is meaningful because it is not forever; Advent is meaningful because it is followed by Christmas. The struggles of this year may will last beyond 11:59pm on December 31, but they won’t last forever. The struggles of this year are meaningful because they are not forever. The ice will break and a new Christmas—the second advent of our Savior—will come.
When I look at it that way, it’s no wonder that this was the year when God renewed my sense of wonder!
More than before, I identify with the spirit of yearning that characterizes Advent. And more than before, I am so grateful for Christmas, for Jesus’ first coming, and the hope it gives me for his second coming.
And that’s why I have a sense of wonder about Christmas again this year.
This new outlook on Advent has breathed new life into many Christmas hymns and vaulted them to the top of my favorite songs list:
O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
–O Come O Come Emmanuel
Come, thou long expected Jesus
Born to set thy people free
From our fears and sins release us
Let us find our rest in thee
–Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn
–O Holy Night
I mean… come on!
As we are just a week away from Christmas, I pray that God uses these final days of expectant waiting to renew your wonder at the fact that our Savior humbled himself in order to save you from the sin within you and around you.
I love you, Church!
Merry Christmas,
Nathan Ehresman