I know parents of young children are hearing those words repeatedly said today. Santa just can\u2019t get here fast enough. On the other hand, parents of those young and older children still have so much on their to-do lists that they wouldn\u2019t mind at all if Santa held off for several more days!
In just a few minutes, I\u2019ll be returning home from Rusk, TX where my daughter\u2019s family and I celebrated Christmas together. Long past are their two little kiddos jumping up and down with sugarplums dancing in their heads. They are on their own now so real life has set in. Cost of living, bills, and handling life and all it brings. But, still, packed full inside of them is the awe and wonder of Christmas.
Back to those who still have the joys of little ones around. Is there any more precise picture of expectation, hope and excitement than young children ready for bed on Christmas Eve? They don\u2019t mind at all going to bed earlier. I will cherish forever, on Christmas Eve when Papa (my beloved husband) would gather all the grands together and read his version of the Christmas Story. The grands could hardly wait for the cow and the sheep and the innkeeper\u2019s voices. It sure helped calm the little ones down from all their excitement for Christmas morning.
When I was a child, every Christmas Eve I would happily cooperate getting on my new pj\u2019s that Mom let me open that \u201cone\u201d present from under the tree. Not exactly the present I wanted to open with some sort of game or toy in it, but nevertheless it meant we\u2019d get in our car and cruise around our neighborhood to look at the Christmas lights on display.
My parents discovered this Christmas lights excursion served two purposes: First, it distracted me from my excitement for a while so my excitement could calm down a bit. And it completely tuckered me out so I would fall asleep in the back seat of the car. Then, they only needed to carry me to my bed so the visions of sugar plums could begin their annual dance as I slumbered, awaiting Santa and the celebration of Jesus\u2019 birth.
The Apostle Paul voiced his own, \u201cI can hardly wait! How much longer?\u201d sentiment. Philippians 1:20 states, \u201cMy eager expectation and hope is that I will not be ashamed about anything, but that now as always, with all courage, Christ will be highly honored in my body, whether by life or by death.\u201d
Paul described this longing by calling it an eager expectation and hope. You gotta\u2019 love Paul. He had a brilliant mind \u2013 studied under foremost scholars. What a great idea God had to grab hold of this once Christian persecutor and set him front and center as the greatest author of nearly 2\/3\u2019s of the New Testament. In that \u201ceager expectation and hope\u201d Paul painted a picture of expectancy, anxious longing, earnest expectation and fixing one\u2019s gaze on the only thing of true importance.
This intense longing for the return of Christ goes far beyond our childlike excitement each Christmas Eve as we anticipate the celebration of Christ’s birth. It is riveted on the future glorious event of the Lord Jesus Christ\u2019s return to earth one day. A day when finally, \u201cHe will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.\u201d (Revelation 21:4)
I can hardly wait! Can you?
Dear Heavenly Father, may we eagerly anticipate the coming day when we will spend eternity with You in heaven. Until that time, grant us courage to live in a way that honors and glorifies You daily. In Jesus\u2019 Name, Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I know parents of young children are hearing those words repeatedly said today. Santa just can\u2019t get here fast enough. On the other hand, parents of those young and older children still have so much on their to-do lists that they wouldn\u2019t mind at all if Santa held off for several more days! In just…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22269,22410,22409],"tags":[1019,1210,22405,756,1769,4182,3204,39,16966,19442,40,22404,22408,22406,22407,22403],"class_list":["post-15339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas-eve","category-expectancy","category-i-can-hardly-wait","tag-apostle-paul","tag-blog","tag-childlike-excitement","tag-children","tag-christian","tag-christmas-eve","tag-expectation","tag-hope","tag-how-much-longer","tag-i-can-hardly-wait","tag-inspiration","tag-longing-for-jesus","tag-no-more-pain","tag-return-of-christ","tag-revelation-214","tag-santa-on-his-way"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15343,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15339\/revisions\/15343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}