Excited Over a Puddle of Ice! Or...Are You Excited About Christmas?

Last weekend, Kim and I went to a local park with our son Jonathan’s family. While the adults  walked, our two grandsons Jesse and Jack rode their balance bikes around the park. (The youngest, Caleb, was in the stroller.)  At one point, Jesse, the older of the two, yelled to the rest of us, “Dad, Grandpa, Grandma, Mom, you’ve got to come see this!” “What is it, Jesse?” we replied. “Hurry! Look! Come over here! It’s a puddle of ice!” 

Dutifully, and with the most excited faces we could put on, we all went to see what all the excitement was about. Well, there it was: a very normal looking puddle that had frozen over—at least to some degree. For most of us, it was anything but all that exciting. For Jesse, however, it was the most exciting thing he has seen all day—maybe all week! 

It’s true that, when we are young the small things in life can feel very exciting. Unfortunately, as we age, it takes much more to wow us. No longer does a puddle of ice or a butterfly flitting by or a worm in the grass stir any feelings of excitement within us. What a child may find new, fresh, and exciting is often considered by we adults as simple, mundane, and ordinary. 

And the truth is, such is very much the case when it comes to Christmas. Whereas children are excited out of their socks at the thought of the coming of Christmas, we who are a bit “more mature,” as we say, end up all too caught up in all the stuff we have to do and the things we have to buy and the places we need to be, and so on. Worse than that, we allow our preparations and celebrations of Christmas to become so overbearing that the sound of a Christmas carol or the sight of a well-decorated tree no longer stirs any real excitement within our souls. 

Yet, when you read the story of the first Christmas, you can’t help but sense excitement woven throughout its pages. For example, I can’t help but imagine the incredible excitement the shepherds felt when on that first Christmas, they heard the angel’s words, “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.  The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!” (Luke 2:10-11 – NLT) And even more so, the excitement they felt when they found the baby Jesus lying in a manger, just as the angel said they would. It’s no wonder they, “went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God….” (vs. 20) For sure, they and all of the others who experienced that first Christmas were quite excited—and for good reason.  

So, just maybe this Christmas, those of us who have grown up a bit and become a bit more mature, might ask God to help us capture once again the excitement of Christmas we may have once felt some time long ago. After all, the birth of our Savior is truly something to get excited about!

Have a great day! And maybe this week, take some time to enjoy a Christmas carol or the lights on a tree. 

- Pastor Tim Harris