UncategorizedAnticipation December 9, 2011My favorite part of Christmas is the anticipation. I saw this picture on Pinterest and it reminded me of why I’ve always loved Christmas. What a beautiful picture of the pure anticipation that a child feels as Christmas morning approaches. It really is a wonderful thing. As a child, I anticipated the coming of Santa and gifts. It wasn’t all about presents for me, though. It was about the MAGIC. Christmas has always been wrapped up in magic to me…everything about it. And I love that. I wait anxiously for it. But this year, I’ve been thinking about how I often get so caught up anticipating the magic of Christmas (which is definitely a great thing) that I miss the true meaning. I was looking at my Advent calendar the other day and thought about the true meaning of “Advent.” It is to anticipate the coming of Christ, the birth of our King. That is really what Christmas is all about. As His child, I should be purely anticipating the celebration of his birth as this little child is anticipating Santa in this photo. But I often don’t do that. I love to give gifts and I get caught up in that. I get caught up in making my own list that family members might ask for. I get caught up planning all of the wonderful times that will be spent with family during the holidays. I get caught up decorating my house. And none of these things are inherently bad. But for me, they can take away from truly anticipating the birth of Christ, as Christmas was intended for. This year, I’m trying to remember that Christmas is indeed magic. It is magical to me for all of the reasons above. But most of all, it should be magical and I should anticipate it because it symbolizes the birth of Jesus, our Savior. Now, that is really something to celebrate.
Kristina says December 9, 2011 at 11:06 pm I’m with you. I don’t focus enough on the true reason for the season, our Savior. The LDS church has a Christmas devotional every year on the first Sunday of December. This year they previewed some Bible videos they’ve created over the past years. They are so beautiful! The previews alone brought tears to me eyes–the entire videos are amazing. They’re short, about 5 minutes each. Here’s a link to the one about the angel appearing to Mary: http://lds.org/bible-videos/videos/an-angel-foretells-christs-birth-to-mary?lang=eng I feel like it captures the very complex emotions she must’ve felt so perfectly. Hope you like it! Also–we need to talk on the phone soon! Reply