Christmas and Expectations
‘Christmas is coming!’ Does that bring delight or dread for you? We all feel the weight of Christmas’s ‘excess baggage.’ We look forward to time with family, giving and receiving gifts, and eating delicious food. However, we dread the topics that will come up at family lunch or anticipate a lonely day on December 25. We feel immense pressure to cook an outstanding meal or give the perfect gift. Christmas is overflowing with expectations. As we dig into Luke 1 we see that the first Christmas had plenty of expectation too. As Gabriel goes to Mary he loads on the expectations for the baby that she will miraculously carry. Mary rightly asks: ‘how will this be?’ The answer is: God is the one who does great things through his servants, and no word of his ever fail. When God speaks, it is met with action.
