Christmas Expectant

Aaaahhhh.  It’s CHRISTMAS time!  FINALLY, I can put on a little Christmas music without my co-workers groaning.  I keep thinking of the Christmas hymn, “Come Thou long-expected Jesus…”  It tells of people awaiting the coming of The Messiah, both in Jesus’ time and today.  In Jesus’ time, they were longing for prophecies to come true, that Jesus would come and save them.  I bet when they saw that baby in a manger there were a few haters..a few who thought their expectations were not met.  After all, it was “only” a baby that lay in that manger.  The problem was, it was “only” a Baby that would grow up to change the course of history; a Baby who would conquer darkness with the shedding of His perfect blood.  A Baby was their Savior.  It didn’t look like what they expected, but He would go on to EXCEED ALL expectation.  The wisemen may not have expected to see a baby in a barn at the end of their journey.  They might have thought they got the shaft in the dreams-fulfilled department.  After all, they had spent their life studying and preparing for the day they would get to see The Messiah.  Even the WORDS “The Messiah” conjur up images of a glowing God-like being.  But when the wisemen got to the end of their journey, all they got was a baby.  In a manger.  A POOR baby.  Not exactly the poster-child for a Messiah.  But the wisemen saw beyond the physical circumstances and into the heart of God for humanity.  They saw that God had a plan in spite of the seemingly doomed circumstances.  Sometimes I act ungrateful, like I get the short-end-of-the-stick in the dreams department.  I think God should make things happen in the way and timing that I have for Him.  But when I allow Him to open my eyes to His working, He shifts my expectations.  Instead of wanting a “fix” the way I want it, I want Him…and His working as He deems best.  I can then see the countless amazing things He is doing in my life.  And I cultivate a grateful heart for all He IS doing, rather than how my dreams aren’t coming to pass exactly as I want them.  I am grateful for a real expectation met:  His Presence.With expectations shifted, already the days seem more magical than Holiday seasons past.  I am looking for The Messiah…and asking Him to have the “eyes of my heart enlightened” that I might see His coming…not in the way I expect it, but in the way that He arrives:  full of world-shifting, grace-abounding, people-loving glory.  In a way, my expectations are MORE than met already this Christmas season;  He’s already arrived in my heart.  But in the same way, He continues to surprise me and show up each day, speaking, if I will but take the time to listen.  I’m listening, are you?More Jesus, always more Jesus,annetta