Expectation

Expectation. During Advent, we anticipate the coming of the Messiah—God’s promise fulfilled. Expectation.

Somewhere along the way we’ve made that word plural. Expectations. Which lead to unmet expectations. A word full of hope and glory wanders into unfulfillment and pain and sadness.  

Expectations

The Christmas of my freshman year in college stands out in my memory. My parents had just returned to Indonesia a couple of months before. After final exams, I flew to Shreveport, Louisiana, to spend the holidays with my grandmother.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but expectations were clearly present deep inside of me. Expectations that there would be a Christmas tree. Christmas lights. Christmas cookies. It only took one step through the back door of her home to feel those expectations hit the floor.

“I didn’t really feel like decorating this year.”  My grandfather had passed away in May after suffering a heart attack. She was grieving loss.  I was grieving too—missing Grandad but also missing my family on this first holiday spent away from them. An ocean away.  That night I cried into my pillow—unmet expectations fueling my homesickness. I cried out to the Lord.

Resolve

The next morning something was different. I woke up with resolve.  Hope. Those expectations for Christmas to be the way it had always been, were quietly laid aside.  I pulled out the tree and we decorated the house. I asked Grandmom if she’d like to bake Christmas cookies and give some to the postman. Pretty soon we both felt cheered up.

Each night that week leading up to Christmas Day, we sat in her living room, lit a candle and by the glow of its flickering light read a passage of the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke.  Quiet evenings of God’s Word and prayer brought us peace and joy.

Season of expectation

My Christmases would never be the same again. I stepped into something new that year by entering celebration intentionally. Turning my focus from how it had always been, to “what do You have in mind for this day.” Transitioning from expectations to expectation.

In the years since then, we’ve celebrated Christmas in many different places. We’ve kept some traditions and started new ones. There have been years of stark simplicity and years of overwhelming abundance. And on plenty of days, I’ve needed fresh reminders that this is a season of expectation, not expectations.

One year we worshiped with a group celebrating Christ’s birth for the very first time ever in the history of their people.  Talk about expectation! On another cool winter evening, I saw Christmas through the eyes of one young believer who had been threatened with death by her own father when she turned to follow Christ.  She stood, dressed in white, before the small gathering of believers. Her face shone as she sang a song of God’s promise fulfilled in salvation through His Son. I felt fresh awe for the incredible plan of our loving heavenly Father. Full of hope. And expectation.

But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11)

And you?

What about you? How do you move from expectations to expectation? How are you celebrating Christ this season?