please don't skip right to "Joy to the World"

I love Christmas. 

I love the “holiday” of It, with all the American nostalgia: the “chestnuts roasting” and “all I want for Christmas is you” music, the cold weather, the presents, the family gatherings, the cookies.

And (differently but necessarily simultaneously) I love the Christian’s celebration of it: after many years of waiting, God did what He promised. He sent a Savior for the world! The Messiah was born! And how surprising and awe-inspiring the details of His birth and life and death were.

I LOOOOOOOOOOVE Christmas.

But it isn’t Christmas yet. And that matters to me.

This December, Is there room left in your decorated home and is there space left in your rightfully excited and expectant heart for “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus?” and “O Come, O Come Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel?”

Because now is the time for Advent. A time of waiting. A time of remembering the longing of the Jews for a Messiah to come. In advent Christians (on this side of Jesus’ birth/death/resurrection) are invited to reflect on how much we ourselves and our world is still in need of a Savior and that helps us to both celebrate His birth and to anticipate and ache for His second coming.

We live in a world that’s still broken, that’s still very much in need of a Savior and when with songs (but worse in reality with how we engage our broken stories and those around us) we skip right to Joy to the World all the time, we miss out on really valuing His coming and really loving each other.

I love the line in Joy to the World that says “He comes to make His blessings flow…far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found, far aaaaas, far aaaaaaaaaas the curse is found.”

That line invites us to WEEP AND CLAP ALL AT THE SAME TIME! He really promises to do that? That’s why He came? That’s what His birth meant?! But I think many of us are out of touch with the joy available to us when we sing that song because we’re out of touch with knowing the sadness and ache of the curse.

Would you be willing to let yourself imagine what you’re waiting for? Areas in your life that feel disappointing, broken, incomplete, still longing. Is it your job that still feels unfulfilling despite promotions or career change? Is it your relationships that feel distant despite desire for more? Is it that deep wound that still feels so far from healing? What is it that makes you ache for more than this? What if allowing yourself in those spaces to cry out for a Rescuer would allow your heart to make room for His arrival? It opens you to longing that might not go away until He returns—no doubt—but at least then you’re alive and honest! And I believe then it accesses some of the deepest truest parts of your own need of a Savior.

Or if you don’t want to go there, would you be willing to imagine what the world is waiting for? What kids in the inner-city of Richmond are waiting for? What wealthy lonely friends might be waiting for? What kids at Home of Hope are waiting for? The more you deeply engage the real darkness and sadness in this world (and in your own life), I believe, the more you’ll see your insufficiency and the need of a Savior to really rescue and heal and make things right.

My dad and his 8 siblings lost their mother when he was in elementary school and his whole life he has felt a deep sadness for all of December (the month that has both her birthday and the anniversary of her death). You could see it coming at Thanksgiving. My dad is always a teddy bear wearing tough guy skin (he’s not fooling anybody…but he did have to raise 4 girls so he couldn’t always wear his tender emotions on his sleeve). But December was different than teddy bear. Without fail, right before or after Thanksgiving there was a tenderness, a sadness, a deep ache and sensitivity to everything for him. And it lasted through Christmas.

I used to only feel so sad about it for him. And I still feel sad. But I also feel a real thankfulness at his achy heart that happens to be during Advent season every year. He knows what it is to cry out and ache for more. He knows what it is to agree with something deep inside that says mommy’s shouldn’t die when their kids are babes. Yes he knows that Jesus came and that gives him hope and joy, but every December (in particular) he is in touch with the truth that we are still waiting people, needing  a Savior to come. Come Thou Long Expected Jesus!

My mom lost her mama this year (and she already lost her dad). She and I are in agreement that having someone live a relatively long life doesn’t mean that we don’t ache, mourn and cry out against death. We weren’t made for death! Apparently she isn’t decorating for Christmas this year and isn’t doing some of our typical celebratory pre-Christmas traditions. I don’t know if she’s named it this, but I have a real respect for her Advent-like attitude as she mourns and aches for a Savior to come and return and make all things new. To take away death once and for all. She’s waiting with hope and longing for a Savior who has promised to wipe away every tear. Far as the curse is found.

I’m thankful for both of their Advent examples, though perhaps you could see their behavior as merely putting a damper on the excitement of Christmas. Instead I see it as instrumental in helping me prepare for the real Christmas.

I believe that when Christians have underdeveloped Advent hearts they also have underdeveloped Christmas and Easter hearts. Yes we wait and ache and grieve as those with hope of a Savior who actually came! Who took the curse on himself and was raised from the dead whose power is at work in the world! Yes, yes, yes! But I find when I’m in tune with the sad realities of a broken world, it doesn’t make me less joyful or hopeful, it makes me more appreciative of a Savior and makes me long for His reign to come in fullness.

Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.