Christmas is by far my favorite holiday. Seriously, I start getting giddy early November. I start plotting Christmas gifts for family and friends months in advance so that I can give them the perfect gift. I love driving around and looking at Christmas lights while sipping on a peppermint mocha from Starbucks. I love going to the mall and looking at all the new decorations. I love the Salvation Army bell ringers at the entrance to ever store. I love decorating our apartment for Christmas.
But in all this, it's not the commercialism of Christmas that gets me excited. I know in this secular world it's all about waking up on Christmas morning to the loads of presents under the tree. That's not what I am celebrating.
I am celebrating the anticipation of the Christmas season. It seems as if the Christmas season is tingling with the anticipation that something big is about to be revealed. Even for those who celebrate only the gifts of Christmas, they are anticipating the morning where all will be revealed.
Something big is about to happen.
Something big did happen that has left the world in anticipation for thousands of years. A Savior was born in a lowly manger. A King was born to a virgin mother and a poor father.
And that King was born to die.
Christmas happened so that we could have Easter. As my father so aptly put it, "The wood of the manger rubs up against the wood of the cross."
I celebrate Christmas for so many more reasons than the presents. I celebrate Christmas because it means that a Savior was born.
That is something worth anticipating. And that is something worth celebrating.
Merry Christmas, my friends.
