Excitement of a Child: Second Saturday of Advent

I have read [your book] Treasure on Earth and I don't believe you have any notion how good it is.... I've never seen the hushed internal excitement of a child on Christmas Eve better done. That is something we can all recognize.
~ C.S. Lewis, from "Letter to Mrs. Phyllis Sandeman", Dec. 10, 1952, Lewis' Collected Letters, III, pp261ff

The excitement of a child on Christmas Eve is a pretty special experience. The gleaming eyes, the bouncing body, the incessant chattering, the great restrainment of not touching the gifts tucked in under the tree - it's all part of what makes Christmas so memorable for kids. Unless, of course, the kids are spoiled brats. Whiny kids, self-aborbed kids, greedy kids, unthankful kids have a way of ruining the excitement of Christmas Eve. Same goes for grown ups.

Here's the a quote from Mrs. Sandeman's book about herself as a little child in 1906 on early Christmas morning that Lewis referred to in his letter to her:

"There was not long to wait now before the drama would begin - the curtain was trembling to its rise. The twilight of the early winter morning, the piercing sweetness of the voices rising in the still air, the tune and the words she loved so well, 'Christians, awake, salute the happy morn!' The heaven would open."

We don't talk like that anymore - and I doubt any of us reflect back on our childhood Christmas mornings with this kind of hushed reverence. It's rare that Christmas morning is a holy moment for our kids, let alone us. Even if we read the Christmas story on Christmas morning as a prelude to opening gifts, there is a disconnect between the poverty of the manger scene and the obscene amount of gifts piled up under our tree.

Simeon was a poor old man who got to hold the week-old infant Christ-child. He gets to be part of the Christmas story because he could clearly see who this baby was - and would become. The excitement of a child, the thrill of holding this newborn baby - Simeon smiled not just for this, but because of what God had given Israel through this gift. Salvation, rescue, forgiveness, new beginnings, hope, mercy, love - this is what God was giving Simeon and his people through Jesus.

My eyes have seen your salvation.
Luke 2v30 (NIV)

It's a challenge - whether you have lots of presents this year or a few or none - to keep our eyes focused on what God is doing in the world through Christmas. We recover that holy moment on Christmas morning when we resolve everyday to be God's gift to our friends and family. Not in an arrogant, self-absorbed way, but in a child-like, loving way. Be the gift.