All You Want for ChristmasSample

White Christmas

“At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him.” - Luke 2:25

Think
“IIIIIII'm dreeeeeaming of a whiiiiiite Christmas…” croons Bing Crosby through the slight static of old speakers spinning on black vinyl. Our own dreams begin to spin, images flurry through our consciousness, pictures of what we are looking for, hoping for, and dreaming for in our own idyllic white Christmases.

Just like Bing or Simeon, we are also looking for something different than what is. The current status of our lives is not enough. It’s never enough. And it’s not supposed to be enough. At least not without Him - without Jesus descending like fresh falling snow to transform our bleakness into a winter wonderland. In this moment of our lives, like Simeon, like Bing Crosby, and like everyone who dreams of what is yet to come, we dream, and we wait. We wait like a boy in snow boots, eyes eager with expectation, peering out a frosted window, sled in hand…we wait…but without a flurry in sight. Where is it? Where is our dreamland?

Waiting is excruciating; waiting is exhausting. That is unless we can see the unseen. The prophets of old were often called “seers.” A seer being one who sees what others do not yet see - a person with imagination - a dreamer. That was Simeon, whose God-enlighted imagination could see what was still yet to come. And that which was to come, it came. He came. And this bleak world will never be the same. When Simeon saw Jesus, the one of whom he had dreamed, he said, “With my own eyes I’ve seen your salvation; it’s now out in the open for everyone to see: a God-revealing light…” (Luke 2:30-32 MSG)

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When a dream is fulfilled, it’s a glorious experience. It’s like watching someone who sees snow for the very first time. When some children from Africa who visited America for the first time saw those dime-size white flakes falling from the sky, they started spinning. Like Bing Crosby’s spinning record, they spun amidst the reality of dreams come true, seeing in reality what they had previously only imagined. And when they saw it, they danced among the falling white because their God-inspired dreams really did come true.

Pray
Dear God, like Bing Crosby, I want a Christmas that is merry and bright, and, like Simeon, I want to see your salvation. Help me to live each day in prayerful expectancy that your revelation will someday fall on my bleak circumstances, transforming them into beauty like fresh falling snow.

Author - Kendall Keeler works as the East Coast Representative for ServeNow, an international ministry that shares Christ’s passion for the world by serving the most vulnerable through national churches and leaders.