Anticipation

My church has a church-wide Christmas outreach program every Christmas. We're in our fourth year, and it is greatly looked forward to by everyone! It is outside, stretching across our property as we tell in full costume the story of the Gospel, from Moses to the empty tomb. My part in past years have been nameless faces in the crowd of Bethlehem--nameless to the hundreds of visitors waling through the tours, but it's a fun job nevertheless. We make up our stories and work on our looms or sell our cloth...and roast potatoes in the fire and eat our granola bars in between groups who come through. :) I always look forward to it, even this year, remembering last year's single digit temperatures and occasional snow all four nights we were there last December. 

 

Garden of Gethesemene

 

I remember sitting next to the fire last year, trying to get warm in between the sparse groups, and telling myself of  our director's words: "Each part is important." I knew that each part of the story, whether Moses or Abraham or Isaiah or Mary and Joseph or the crowd in Bethlehem, is important. Each person plays a part in the grand scheme of God's story, in the real life of it back then, or the role play we do each year. In the literal freezing cold, it was hard to tell myself that, though. 

And then this year, I changed roles. Instead of playing a part on the trail, I helped guide tours through the story. Over the course of four nights, I went through 14 times. Fourteen times I listened to Moses explain the creation and fall of man. Fourteen times I watched Abraham willing to sacrifice his son Isaac. Fourteen times I listened to Isaiah prophesy that the Light was coming (one of my favorite parts!). Fourteen times Joseph knocked at the Inn and then turned to Mary: "Don't worry, Mary. God will provide--He always does." Fourteen times the angel announced Jesus' birth to the shepherds. Fourteen times I stood in front of a cross and heard proclaimed "it is finished!" And fourteen times I stood in front of an empty tomb as the cry rang out: "Jesus is alive!"  

 

sign on the door of the present-day tomb in Israel

 

It never got old. When I started out as a guide assistant on Thursday night, I had thought that by Sunday, the tours would seem long. My guide and I were the last ones out on Sunday, and right before the cross, I stopped to think, "Wow--we're almost done. It feels like we just started!" It never got old--in fact, it only got more exciting each night, each tour we took.  

 

in En Gedi, looking toward the Dead Sea

 

After Abraham, and before King David, and before Isaiah, we have what we dub the "pop-up kids"--children who run along the trail as the group is coming and call out, "He is coming!" There's another one right before the stable who announces softly, "He is here! The Messiah is here!" 

And then--even that fourteenth tour late on Sunday night--I eagerly awaited the last "pop-up kid."

 

"He is coming again!" he announced. "He is coming again!" 

You see, the story's not really over yet. 

The whole Old Testament holds the anticipation of the Jewish people awaiting their Messiah. He came mostly unnoticed, lived a sinless life, and was killed at the hands of the jealous religious leaders. He arose three days later, and the book of Acts tells the story of thousands who recognized that Jesus is the Messiah. 

Jesus is my Savior, too--and I hope He is yours, also. But the anticipation of His coming still lingers--His second coming.  

Fourteen times on the trail in four days, and I never lost that anticipation. I found new purpose in the roles of past years--that crowd in Bethlehem holds that anticipation--and even as I know them as my friends I say hi to every Sunday, there's almost this thought that "I hope they understand the Messiah's been born!" :) The crowd carries anticipation. It helps build the anticipation that each tour has as it goes through, just as each station does from Moses on through the end.  

 

Gordon's Calvary,
one of the possibilities of the actual site

 

In "the fullness of time," Jesus came. But our story is that we still anticipate an event in the future. Our salvation has come, but it is not fully realized. Evil still exists, pain still happens, tears still fall. Just as God promised to send the Messiah, He promises to conquer evil and pain and tears once for all--and we are still waiting for the fulfillment of that promise. His promise holds true...and may God increase our anticipation of that future fulfillment! 

Merry Christmas--and even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!