Living with Expectancy

 

by Alan Ahlgrim

There”s no doubt about it, this is my favorite celebration of the year. There”s just something special about Christmas for young and old alike.

Ever since I was a little kid, Christmas Eve has been a night filled with anticipation and Christmas Day a grand celebration of light and love and joy.

I can”t ever remember a crummy Christmas. When I was a kid I even got along with my sisters at Christmas. Somehow they seemed nicer.

To me everything has always seemed better at Christmas. It has always seemed to me that the decorations are prettier, the lights are brighter, the singing is richer, the people are happier, and my problems are smaller. Even the desserts are bigger!

At Christmas there”s such a great spirit of joy and celebration that there”s just no room for gloom.

 

THE LIGHT HAS DAWNED

Here”s one of my favorite Christmas texts, a passage I often read to our family just before Christmas dinner: “Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. . . . The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned” (Isaiah 9:1, 2).

There”s every reason to live with expectancy because “a light has dawned.”

Centuries before the birth of Christ, the prophet Isaiah clearly predicted both the coming of Christ and the impact of Christ.

Christ means “anointed one” or “appointed one”; it is the Greek word for Messiah, and the Messiah was the long-awaited one who would save Israel.

The Jewish people had long hoped for a savior, someone who would deliver them. Those who truly believed in God expected God to come to their aid.

However, the Messiah they expected and the Messiah they eventually received were not exactly the same.

That”s what caused Jesus to be rejected later by most Jewish people, and that”s why many Jews today still wait for their Messiah.

What many Jews of old really wanted was a mighty military leader who would free them from their enemies and oppressors. And who could blame them? But because they were living with the expectation that the deliverance of God would come militarily, they missed the ultimate intervention of God.

You see, while living with expectancy is essential; living with expectation is dangerous.

I learned that lesson at Christmas when I was a kid. There were times I dreamed of a certain sort of gift, even a red Schwinn bicycle.

You see, the bike I rode was not the best. It was already banged up when we bought it for $3. It came with a beat-up frame and rusted rims and rotten tires, and several broken pieces in a small cardboard box.

However, by the time I got done with that $3 bike, I had invested just about $33,000 from my own savings. At least it felt like that. And while the bike served me well, it was never the bike of my dreams. It never met my expectations.

Maybe you can relate to that. Maybe there was a time you had such a clear idea of what you wanted, that when you got something else, even something you knew to be serviceable, even from someone who loved you, maybe even from God himself””you still were disappointed with it.

Quite frankly, many people were disappointed with the coming of Jesus. The Pharisees, for example, lived with such a clear expectation of the coming Messiah that they rejected Jesus the Messiah when he didn”t exactly fit what they had expected or wanted.

Expectation can be a dangerous thing. Expectation insists God do something a certain way.

Expectation can ruin us. Expectation can even blind us to the blessings of God.

IN HIS TIME

Expectation can be a great burden; by contrast expectancy is the belief God will bless us in his way, at his time.

This is exactly what happened when God the Father sent Jesus the Son to be our Savior.

Scripture says this happened “in the fullness of time.” That is, when the time was just right, Jesus was sent to be light in the darkness. Jesus came to save us and to show us what God was really like.

It”s sad so many people miss the joy of Christ because their personal expectations are not met.

They don”t get the shiny new bike for Christmas, or worse, they don”t get the loving spouse or the happy family they always dreamed of, or they don”t get the good job or great healing or fulfilling friendships they longed for.

Sometimes God doesn”t give us what we want and instead sends us what we need. Sometimes God doesn”t fulfill our short-term expectations . . . instead he sends us a Savior.

But whenever that happens, the light dawns for us (if we have eyes to see), and we come to understand just how blessed we are both now and forever.

For the believer in Christ, there is every reason to live with expectancy “for to us a child is born””a blessing has come.”

What would it take for you to see that you are already richly blessed in Christ?

We”re not talking here about the coming of an ordinary infant. We”re talking about the coming to earth of God himself.

The coming of light into darkness. The coming of hope into despair. The coming of joy into gloom.

Scripture says: “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation” (Colossians 1:15, New Living Translation).

“For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ”s blood on the cross” (Colossians 1:19, 20, NLT).

The coming of Christ is no ordinary event; it”s even more than an extra special event.

It”s “the great rescue”; it”s Christ himself coming to claim us as his own, so we can share in his glory forever.

 

THE GREAT RESCUE

I just read the story of a man who served with a unit of U.S. Navy SEALs sent to free hostages from a building in some dark part of the world.

The team of rescuers was flown in by helicopter, made their way to the compound, and stormed the room where the hostages had been imprisoned for months without hope.

They stood at the door and called to the prisoners, telling them they were Americans sent to rescue them. The SEALs commanded the hostages to follow them, but the hostages wouldn”t move. They just sat there on the cold floor and hid their eyes in fear. They were immobilized and too intimidated to move a muscle. They were frightened and confused, unable to believe their rescuers were for real.

So the SEALs stood there, not knowing what to do. They couldn”t possibly carry everybody out.

That”s when one of the Navy SEALs got an idea. He put his weapon down, took off his helmet, and curled up tightly next to the other hostages, his body touching some of the prisoners.

He softened the look on his face and put his arms around them. He tried to show them he was one off them. None of the prison guards would have done this.

He stayed there for a little while until some of the hostages started to look at him, finally meeting his eyes.

The SEAL whispered that they were Americans sent to rescue them.

“Will you follow us?” he asked. The rescuer then stood and one of the hostages did the same, then another and then another, until all of them were willing to go.

The story ended with all of the hostages safe on an American aircraft carrier. The rescue was complete.

That is a picture of what happened when God the Father sent Jesus to rescue us. Jesus didn”t come out of anger, but out of love. Jesus didn”t come commanding, but rather inviting, even serving.

The message of Christmas is about the good news of rescue today; God has not forgotten us here on earth””God came to rescue us!

As the angel said to the shepherds so long ago: “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2: 10, 11).

It was just as the prophet predicted centuries earlier: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light had dawned” (Isaiah 9:2).

 

 

 

Alan Ahlgrim is lead pastor at Rocky Mountain Christian Church, Niwot, Colorado and a member of Standard Publishing”s Publishing committee.