Read: Luke 2:1-20
You might think it’s a little early for the Christmas story to be the meditation reading this week, and you are probably right. We are still in the season of Advent. But I ran across a story from John E. Sumwalt this week that reminds us why waiting is actually good for us. It went like this…
You might think it’s a little early for the Christmas story to be the meditation reading this week, and you are probably right. We are still in the season of Advent. But I ran across a story from John E. Sumwalt this week that reminds us why waiting is actually good for us. It went like this…
There was once a little girl named Lucinda who couldn’t wait for Christmas to come. She was so excited about Christmas that she was about to burst! Lucinda loved everything about Christmas. She loved singing Christmas carols, she loved decorating the tree and sending Christmas cards, she loved shopping and wrapping the presents. But, most of all, she loved unwrapping presents on Christmas morning.
She couldn’t wait to see what she was going to get. And one year she didn’t wait! She sneaked into the closet where her mom and dad had hidden her presents and she peeked. She unwrapped the presents just enough to see what she was going to get. At first she was very excited, because she liked the presents and she couldn’t wait to play with them. But later, she began to feel sad. All of the excitement of waiting was gone. Now she didn’t have anything to look forward to on Christmas morning.
That night, at the Christmas Eve service, the little girl listened as the Christmas story from Luke 2 was read from the Bible. She knew the story well, and she especially liked the part where the angel told the shepherds about the birth of the baby Jesus. How excited they must have been as they made their way to Bethlehem. Their people had been waiting a long, long time for the Messiah to come.
Even though it had taken many years, they had never given up hope. And how special it must have been to see the baby Jesus in the manger, even though the angel told them exactly what they were going to see. “Maybe that’s how it will be for me when I open my presents,” the little girl thought, and she began to get excited about Christmas morning all over again.
And when Lucinda opened her presents the next morning, what do you suppose happened? She was surprised! She didn’t get any of the presents she had peeked at! Her sister got all of those. She had peeked at the wrong presents! What a relief it was, and what a valuable lesson she had learned. She would never, ever even try to peek at her presents again! She would wait patiently, and with great excitement, for Christmas to come. She would wait as long as it took.
Just another reminder for all us, Christmas will come. We wait with great anticipation!
Make it Personal: Go ahead and peek at the Christmas story this week. If you are like me you can never read it enough. Perhaps this Christmas we should try to memorize these verses so that they can stay with us all year long. Perhaps some of you already have.
Advent blessings, Pastor Glen Rhodes
