We started playing Christmas music in our office today.  The first song took me a bit by surprise, as I found myself instantly transported back in time to a much younger David, a David who anticipated the coming season, who feared that it would both come too slowly and leave too soon.  I found myself smiling with the revelation that Christmas is almost here!

However, that David was quickly exchanged for a different David, a David who dreaded the coming season, who feared it would come too soon and leave too slowly. And I found myself wincing with the revelation that Christmas is almost here.

It’s funny, isn’t it; if it weren’t so sad, at how our expectations of something can so color our emotions? My first David remembered a time of snow, gifts, Christmas carols and friends.  The latter had experienced the expectations, the rush, and the anxieties of the holiday.

And both missed the Advent, the proclamation of something good, something very good, the truth of the season.  Both were concerned with how fast or slow this time would pass.

I really don’t want to live in either this year.  Rather, my hope is to embrace the proclamation of a great message, a message of freedom for all who have been held captive, while at the same time celebrating the truth and reality of that arrival.  That today is the day of the Lords favor.

So I say, bring on the Christmas music.  May each song, whether it is Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer or Silent Night, proclaim to you a reality, not an emotion.  May each proclaim the truth: that the birth of our King on that first Christmas changed everything.

And may you never listen to Christmas music the same.

To the King,

David