We are in the season again where we look forward
to Christmas and the celebration of the birth of
Christ.
I can remember when I was young and the time seemed to inch by until Christmas would come. There was a good deal of anticipation for its arrival and it seemed like it took forever to get here.
I'm not sure when time sped up so much, but now it seems like we just celebrated last Christmas and when Thanksgiving comes around it will just be a couple of days and Christmas will be here too.
I'm not sure what that says about me.
It may mean that I have lost some of the innocent joy of looking foward to celebrating Christ's birth with the wonder of the Christmas story. It may mean that I looked forward to opening Christmas presents more then than I do now. It may mean that I have more to do than I did then.
Now I look forward to that one event each year
that finally touches me in a way that I remember what
the season is all about. It may be some music I hear
or sing. It may be finding just the right present for
someone. It may be a taste or a smell. Or it may be
hearing the Christmas story over again and finding
something new in it. I'm amazed how that can happen.
Either it's something new, or something I havejust
forgotten. In either case, it becomes a moment of
excitement to realize the richness of the story of
Christ's birth.
It may also mean that I can understand what it will be like when we come into the presence of God and time doesn't have any meaning any more. If everything is as a day with God and he can see the tableau of time in an instant, maybe it's like time getting shorter and shorter between Christmases. Only better.