There is one holiday activity that is a must in our home every year. Of course, my kids love picking out a Christmas tree; they enjoy decorating and stringing lights. But the thing they love most is baking Christmas cookies. If you want to get the grandkids kids excited, tell them that they get to bake and decorate festive cookies. Now, anyone who has ever baked and decorated cookies knows that it is a whole process. From measuring out ingredients to mixing and rolling out dough, it is an investment. Then you have to use cookie cutters to create the tasty snowmen or reindeer. After that, those cookies are placed in the fridge to chill. Once they are removed, then you still need to smear icing on in the right amount and cover them with sprinkles and chocolate. It may take a while, but after all that hard work and anticipation, then my kids get to finally sink their teeth into what they have worked so hard for. It is the joy of anticipation. Knowing that the work that is being put in will eventually pay off.
As you look through the Biblical Christmas narrative, nearly all the characters in the story who were waiting on Jesus to be born were marked by joy. You would think it would be despair after hundreds of years or anticipation, however, just knowing what the arrival of Jesus would mean for them and others filled them with excitement.
JOY CAN BE FOUND IN WHAT WILL BE AND NOT JUST WHAT IS
The Christmas account in the book of Luke gives us a little insight into some aspects of the story that the book of Matthew does not. We are told that a woman named Elizabeth is pregnant under miraculous circumstances. Elizabeth happens to be the cousin of Mary, the mother of Jesus.Mary goes to visit Elizabeth while the two are pregnant. It is during their interaction that we see joy in a unique way.
READ Luke 1:39-45
As Mary arrives in Elizabeth’s home, the baby inside of Elizabeth’s womb leaps for joy and Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit. The text seems to tell us that the reason for Elizabeth and her baby’s (John The Baptist) joyful response is that Mary is carrying the Lord (Jesus) inside of her womb. Just the presence of Jesus being close has a powerful effect on everyone who is present in the home.
Elizabeth praises Mary for her belief in God and her willingness to submit to the plan of God that would be birthed into the world through her womb. When I read this text, I wonder to myself: “What is it that she and the baby are so excited about?” The Lord Elizabeth is speaking of is still an unborn baby. He hasn’t done anything yet.
Perhaps we can learn something here. What if we can experience joy in our lives today, not because of how things are now, but because of what could be in the future by the intervention of God? Elizabeth and her child are rejoicing in what was going to result from Jesus’ long anticipated birth. Notice what Elizabeth says in verse 45, “Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord WOULD fulfill his promises to her”. Mary is blessed because she trusted and believed in something that had not yet come to pass.
Sometimes just anticipating God showing up can be enough to lift our spirits.
May you find joy this Christmas
