This Week's Devo

   Waiting for Christmas (and Something More)

The season is bustling and Christmas chaos is in full swing! Delivery drivers are working their hardest, shopping malls are brimming with shoppers, and every little child can hardly contain their excitement over the anticipation of Christmas morning.

Each day my own children eagerly change the ‘days till Christmas’ countdown and try to imagine what Christmas morning will bring. The waiting is almost too much for them to bear as the special day draws closer. 

But as we wait with anxious delight, we wait in full knowledge of what is coming. We know without a doubt that it will come and exactly when it will come. 

Yet the anticipation of Christmas hasn’t always been marked by clarity and countdowns. For Isaiah and the people of Judah, waiting meant trusting a promise spoken into fear and darkness. 

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” – Isaiah 9:6

While we hear these words today in every Christmas Cantata or Charlie Brown Christmas special, we hear them as a prophecy fulfilled. But when Isaiah spoke these words, it was a promise to come given to a people who dwelt in a land of deep darkness. 

A Bit of History

Isaiah’s ministry was over 700 years before the birth of Jesus—a season marked by constant fear, shaky leadership, and fractured faith. Israel lived under the looming threat of the Assyrian Empire, the most brutal military force of the ancient world at the time. Judah was politically unstable, spiritually compromised, and morally divided. Kings formed alliances rather than trusting God and idolatry was widespread as people still worshipped God yet felt the need to hedge their bets with the false gods. 

When Isaiah said in verse 2, “the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” this darkness was not exaggerative or poetic—it was political, spiritual, and generational despair. 

The people needed a military deliverer—someone to crush Assyria, restore national power and secure borders (sounds a lot like the deliverance they hoped for from Rome when they looked to Jesus as the Messiah.)

Instead, Isaiah proclaims the coming of a child, a son, and a kingdom marked by peace, justice, and righteousness, not conquest. It was a promise of redemption that required forward looking faith—looking toward the hope of prophecy.

For the people of Israel in Isaiah’s time, their anticipation was unresolved. They didn’t see their Savior in their lifetime, they did not experience any visible fulfillment. They only had the assurance that God had spoken. They lived between prophecy and silence, believing God would act—eventually.

They waited like the watchmen in Psalm 130:5-6, “My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen in the morning.”

Watchmen didn’t know when morning would break—only that it must.

They waited without dates on a calendar, trusting without proof, hoping without relief. 

They waited for a promise, they hoped without the cross, they trusted without the resurrection. 

Isaiah’s audience anticipated a Savior they had only heard promised. We anticipate a Savior we know by name—one who has already come, already conquered sin, and already secured hope. 

While they waited for the light to come, we wait for the Light to return.

We have the immense blessing of a different kind of anticipation. Our anticipation comes on the flip side of fulfilled prophecy—promises fulfilled, proof given, and life restored. We no longer wonder who our Redeemer will be or how He will redeem; we wait from a place of redemption, anchored in the firm hope of His promised return. 

And our anticipation does not rest only in His coming glory. It surrounds every promise of His presence, provision, and power for today. Because the Light has already come, we can trust that God is at work even now—guiding us by His Spirit, sustaining us through sorrow and uncertainty, and carrying us with a peace and joy that surpasses understanding. 

We can confidently anticipate that God’s plan for us is truly good, that He will never leave us to wander alone, and that He will provide for our every need. 

So as we wait for Christmas this year, may our anticipation stretch beyond a date on the calendar and settle into faith-filled expectation—living fully in the light that has come while watching with joy for the Light who will return.