I’m ready for Christmas. I’m ready for gathering the community together for a Carols night. I’m anticipating the excitement of seeing families come through our Salvation Army centre and receive new toys and food hampers to support them at Christmas.
I’m ready. The expectation level is high.
I wonder… what’s your expectation level at?
The Christmas story is full of expectation and anticipation. The wise men are making their way to where Mary and Joseph are in Bethlehem. They’re travelling, day in and day out, in expectation and anticipation.
“I wonder what the new child will be like?”
“I wonder how many people know that this is the promised Messiah?”
“What is the world going to look like?”
“This is going to be an incredible moment!”
The expectation levels are high! But not just with the wise men.
The shepherds
The shepherds are out watching their flocks at night time. They walk back and forth through the sludge and muck and rocky countryside. Then an angel visits them and they are terrified. The conversation goes like this:
“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord” (Luke chapter 2, verses 10-11).
Then suddenly there’s a large crowd of angels praising God. And when the angels had finished their little heavenly praise party, you can sense the expectation of the shepherds. They say to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about” (Luke chapter 2, verse 15b).
The expectation level is high.
What about you?
I don’t know how often you’ve heard the Christmas story. Maybe 20 times, year after year. I feel like, irrespective of how many times you’ve sung the First Noel, it’s time to get a little expectation in our spirits.
Let’s get ready to embrace this Christmas season and be expectant on what God wants to do among us this year.
So, what about you? Where are you at? How are you feeling? As we look to Christmas and then the new year, I feel like it’s time for a new level of anticipation, excitement, and expectation about what God wants to do in us and through us.
Picture a couple, and the wife has just found out she’s pregnant and there’s about another 7 months before she gives birth to her first child. There’s a level of expectancy that she begins to have.
She knows a child is coming, so she works with her partner to clear out the spare room. She finds a place to put all her paperwork. She finds a cupboard for all her second-hand clothes, and puts the spare socks in a basket and places it back in the laundry. She finds a bassinet on gumtree and places it in the corner. She organises a baby shower and is blessed with many gifts. The generous gifts are placed in the spare room, which now looks like a child’s bedroom.
She hasn’t had the child yet, but she expects a child. She is about to give birth to a child.
I’m left wondering, what the Christian journey would be like if we lived in a state of expectation. What if we lived in such a way that we had a deep-seated belief that God was wanting to do a good work in our lives? What would expectancy look like?
In the Christmas story of the birth of Jesus Christ, we witness excitement and anticipation. What would our lives look like if we lived with a similar level of expectation?
Pete Brookshaw is the Senior Minister of The Salvation Army Craigieburn. He has a Bachelor of both Business and Theology and is passionate about the church being dynamic and effective in the world and creating communities of faith that are outward-focused, innovative, passionate about the lost and committed to societal change. He has been blogging since 2006 at http://www.petebrookshaw.com about leadership and faith and you can find him on:
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Peter Brookshaw’s previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/peter-brookshaw.html
