Christmas Eve? Or, Christmas Day?

ANTICIPATION? Which is better, Christmas Eve? Or, Christmas Day? I, myself, have a hard time choosing. Christmas day brings with it all the excitement of the day itself. For many of us it holds fond memories of family and friends gathered around our table and tree. It holds the fulfillment of the perfect gift given or received.

Ahhh, Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve holds in its grasp all the hope of Christmas Day! My most favorite time of the church year is Christmas Eve. It is contained in the few moments of quiet after the Christmas Eve service. It is after the parties, after the dinners, after the special services, music, and programs. It is five minutes in the quiet sanctuary with the scent of the candles still lingering in the air and only the lights from the tree softly glowing. It is after everyone else is gone and right before I go home myself. It is a handful of fleeting minutes to contemplate the Infinite God in the tiny manger, to think of the one who deserves the rulers of the world to bow low before Him also accepting the lowly, lonely, outcast shepherds into such a humble throne room. 

Christmas Eve requires patience, something many of us are in short supply of during the holiday season. We use it all up waiting in lines, making our list, checking it twice, wrapping, hiding, more wrapping, and on and on. Christmas Eve requires faith, faith that God will indeed deliver on the promises He has made.

Christmas Day has, at times, been a let down for some of us, a dear relative that couldn’t come, a present that did not arrive on time or was not given at all, or the less than perfect Christmas dinner. However, the prophets did not promise disappointment, but fulfillment. God does not deliver something unwanted, but that which is most needed. The quiet of Christmas Eve just gives us a few more moments to wonder at the marvel of such a timely and necessary gift!

Pastor Craig