Pastor Ponderings #178: Expecting Too Little

Christmas is a season of great expectations. We build up a war chest of excitement throughout the year in anticipation of this season of joy. Some will

celebrate half Christmas while stores offer Christmas in July sales. Expectations are often so lofty that few actually attain unto it. Preparations are made with greatest care, for banquets, gatherings, and celebrations. We transform the drab to dazzling with our decorating. Do all our efforts in transforming the peripheral, add to, or detract from the focus?

Luke 2:10-11 "Then the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.'"

In the chaos that was the first Christmas, Mary and Joseph experienced nothing like what they would have expected. Travelling while due to be delivered, finding no accommodation, birthing your first-born in a barn. If anyone was keeping score, they would have chalked it up to a complete catastrophe! Yet, out of this Christmas wreckage rose the voices of a multitude of the heavenly hosts.

Luke 2:13-14 "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 'Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!'”

These angelic voices did not raise a battle cry, nor did the multitude muster for war. For the first time in recorded history, a heavenly host came to earth lifting their voices in praise and glory to God! But for what?! This first Christmas was, by our standards, a dismal failure. What did the angels see that we could not? They witnessed a historical event of epic proportions in the first step of God’s redemptive plan - the birth of Jesus.

Joseph, Mary, and Jesus did not experience Christmas fit for a Hallmark movie. No doubt, it was a Christmas to be remembered, but not for reasons we would celebrate had we been in their shoes. God often appears at work when little else seems to be working. This was the case on that first Christmas. The Lord was creating a moment to be celebrated again and again, year after year, in countless households and churches. The recognition of God’s love expressed through the gift of a life which would ultimately offer itself a ransom for many.

If every other Christmas expectation fails us, we can still join the chorus of the angelic host and rejoice over the gift of God which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. A flawless Christmas pageant, a family gathering without frustrations, a complete Christmas experience going off without a hitch may be expecting too much. But when we consider what God is often doing amid seeming disaster, most often we are expecting too little.