Christian living / Write your heart out

Anticipating CHRISTmas

Mihaela Echols23 Comments

Do you remember being a child around  Christmas?

Do you remember the giddy feeling you’d get as soon as you’d see those presents under the Christmas tree?

All the wonder and curiosity of what’s inside danced in your mind. And that is why this family celebrates Christmas this way.

Instead of hiding the gifts the parents would  put them under the tree weeks ahead. The children would sit by them pointing and chatting about them. They weren’t allowed to touch them or pick them up until Christmas. Now imagine with me all the wonder and excitement as a child while the gifts scream ‘open me!’ as they sit under the tree.

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They didn’t teach this as patience. They had a far greater lesson in mind.  

Romans 8:18 “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

2 Corinthians   “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

How we anticipate the gifts of Christmas is how we should anticipate being with Christ in heaven someday. The Bible tells us bits and pieces giving us an idea of what heaven will be like, but we will never fully know until we are there. Just like the gifts they had an idea of what was underneath the bows and colorful wrapping paper. There’s still the anticipation of seeing. 

A family tradition presented as a greater lesson.  

Deuteronomy 6:6-9

23 thoughts on “Anticipating CHRISTmas”

  2. I love that you are anticipating Christmas already. we should wake up anticipating time with the Lord. That’s true love

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  5. It’s funny, our pastor spoke to the kids about this exact point before Christmas last year, right around Thanksgiving actually. It made a huge impact on them, and then we put together the last few shoeboxes with new vigor in hopes of saving more brothers and sisters for Christ.

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  10. There was a song in the 90s that I loved that had the same basic idea. It was by 2 hearts and it talked about our anticipation of heaven.

    Here’s the chorus:

    Isn’t anybody talkin’ ’bout goin’ home anymore
    Isn’t anybody talkin’ ’bout streets of gold
    Could it be we’re so happy with things down here
    The holy place we once held dear
    From our sight has disappeared
    Is there anybody talkin’ ’bout goin’ home

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  12. It’s sad that most places you don’t even hear a Merry Christmas anymore. With it just around the corner that will all start up again. I still say Merry Christmas thats what it is.

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  13. I absolutely love Christmas. I remember being a play as a child the Bethlehem I was the tree that made the manger. I hate that people get so offended that they are stop saying Merry Christmas. I know I say it all season long.

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  18. This really speaks to me in the sense that there’s no reason given to me as a child why I had to wait until Christmas to open my presents. It was just the way it was and I accepted that that was the way it was even with the anticipation and wait. In a lot of ways, that’s what it’s like with the way I wait for His promises.

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