Just Waiting.

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11 (NIV)

Do you ever find yourself waiting for something spectacular to happen in your life? Some single event that changes your life in some dramatic fashion? I think that is why our adrenaline-junkie culture eats up big apocalypse movies and is addicted to 24-hour news. We are waiting for something, and we don't want to miss it. What if the world was ending in three days and we had to find a way to survive? How exciting and scary that would be!

But it seems those events never come. Life goes on, normal and mundane. We may get life changing events, but they are never the kind that we want. They don't always turn out happily like the movies. And all-day news is just repetitive and kind of boring.

I wonder if the people who surrounded Jesus' birth felt the same way. Did they know, really know, who He was? Did they feel the power of God surround Him, even as He lay in the manger? Do we still get that excitement today?

The everyday life can be numbing to our spiritual sensibilities. It can rob us of sustained joy and excitement. Christmas comes to remind us of what we have been given. New life in the form of a new life: Jesus. He came fresh into this world, not placed here fully grown or in some other form, but as a baby, humble and weak, just as the rest of us. His absolutely ordinary entrance into this world is what makes His story so unexpected. We don't look for saviors in barns. We look for grandiose entries into the upper crust of society. We don't look for pregnant women on donkeys; we look for magnificent kings riding in with ostentatious style. Our modern culture gets gift-obsessed and greets each other with holiday tidings, so as not to offend people with the real reason of Christmas.

This Christmas, are you still waiting for that savior to come galloping over the hills on a white horse? Or is your joy and excitement founded in the One who already is here, just waiting for you to come to Him?

God, thank you for the gift of salvation through Jesus. As we go through the celebrations and rituals of Christmas, remind us that our hope, our Savior has already come. Sustain our joy and help us to spread that good news we already have received. Amen.

Nikki Hamsher