The Cunard ocean liners used to have a saying, "Half the fun is getting there".
I've decided that is so true about Christmas. The reality of opening presents on Christmas morning was never quite as exciting as spending weeks pouring over
the toy sections in the long awaited Penney's and Sears' Christmas catalogues.
I knew I wasn't getting anything from those catalogues for Christmas but the daydreams I had about the toys were super terrific. Because my mother was a good seamstress and knitter, our presents often included matching outfits for my sister and me, hand knitted gloves and stocking caps, and doll clothes. One Christmas, my brother gave me a plastic hippopotamus because I walked around singing "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas". They were special gifts and anything ordered out of those catalogues would have lost their splendor the day after Christmas.
That is how I feel about Advent. I'm certainly not trying to down play the celebration of the birth of the Christ child but the anticipation of Advent makes it all somehow more exciting.
I love the old Advent hymns: "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence", "O Come, O Come Emmanuel", "On Jordan's Bank the Baptist's Cry", "Creator of the Stars of Night", "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus".
I love these hymns because of the mystery they present. Now they are what we call the "old hymns". "Let All Mortal Flesh" was written in the 4th century. "Creator of the Stars" was written in the 9th century. "O Come, O Come" was written in the 15th century and "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus" and "On Jordan's Banks" were written in the 18th century. It just goes to prove that good music can last forever. And so does the love of Jesus, Our Savior and that is a wonderful thing to remember every day of the year.
Keep on singing,
Karen