The holiday season seems to come faster and faster every year. In seminary one of my professors said that Sundays seem to come around every five days, and I have the sneaking suspicion that we could now say the holidays come around every few months.
Even though I would love to start celebrating Christmas after Thanksgiving, the reality is we have already started getting ready for our Family Christmas Eve service and Night of Caring. A funny thing has happened while we have been preparing—I have started to feel the weight of anticipation differently. I have started feeling that desire and longing for the birth of our Savior.
Our children have started imagining telling the birth narrative in their own words, and while questions about the story have been asked and imagination has overflowed, there is a feeling in the air that we are getting a great privilege to tell this story.
And that is where I feel the weight of anticipation. I feel it when our children are excited to talk about how the shepherds must have been stinky or why Mary and Joseph didn’t just ride their bikes to be counted. The weight is felt because our children know that this story is special. The weight of anticipation is felt when we know Thanksgiving is right around the corner but we are eager to tell of the angels’ proclamation of glory.
Yet we know that we must wait—we must continue to ask questions about the birth story no matter how silly they sound. This Advent season let’s tap into our inner child and ask questions and imagine this birth of our Savior with weighted importance and anticipation, knowing that we get to tell the story of the One who saves us every single day.
