Merry Christmas Eve! Are you part of the open-your-gifts-tonight crowd, or a wait-until-Christmas-morning crowd? Either way, we all feel the excitement of anticipation! Especially as children!

Growing up, my family opened gifts on Christmas Eve. But NOT until after dinner. And after the dishes were done, and after Mom had made coffee, and…. Aaargh! Can we open presents NOW!? I felt like the anticipation would kill me!

And then Dad would settle into his chair and say, “Okay…. Now we can open presents.” And it was always my job to hunt for presents under the tree and hand them out in order so we could open them one-at-time. The wait was over! We all laughed and smiled and enjoyed the fun gifts we all got.

I loved that moment! It felt a little bit like what I imagine the resurrection will feel like—all laughter and peace and joy with my family, and with Jesus himself!  

Christmas Eve anticipation is a great metaphor for life. We are waiting anxiously for the coming of Jesus! In this way, Christmas Eve is practice in dying well.

I know it’s odd to be thinking about death on the eve of celebrating Jesus’ birth, but hear me out. Christian spirituality has long been described as the “art of dying well.”

Jesus’ joyous birth was mixed with sorrow. The angel’s glad tidings of “peace on earth and good will toward all people” heralded Christ's purpose in becoming human: that he might die and suffer Hell to reconcile us to God. My birth also carries with it the shadow and inevitability of death. I cannot escape my fate.

And yet, Christ’s death altered the very fabric of reality. My death is no longer a final destination, but a doorway, a tiny threshold easily stepped over. And beyond the threshold? Eternally growing Love, Joy, Peace… JESUS!

So, the Christian life is much like little Brandon anxiously waiting to start the gift opening ritual. Faith means waiting. Growing in faith means learning not to complain or fight or steal gifts from under the tree while we wait.

Christ is coming for you, [[name]]! Just like those presents under your tree right now will soon be unwrapped! In an instant—the twinkling of an eye—we will all be changed. We will be made incorruptible, immortal! Death will be swallowed up! It will be destroyed!

Therefore, [[name]], let us be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, because we know that our labor in the Lord is not in vain! (1 Corinthians 15:58)