Filling Up Christmas | The Fullness of Time | Galatians 4:4 | Week 1

If you're anything like me, I get real excited about the Christmas season, I get excited about Advent, and we put a lot of energy into it and then we feel exhausted when it's done.  Are you with me? December 25th hits and we're like, I don't want to see anybody, I don't want to talk to anybody.  I know that Jesus has been born, but I've drunk so much eggnog and had so many parties and I've seen so many people, I just need a moment to myself.  Is anybody with me?  We get done with Christmas and we're like, hey, we can only do this once a year, because it's exhausting.  What if we could make a few minor changes in the way that we think, in the way that we act, in the way that we engage this season, rather than ending this season feeling like we're running on empty?  What if?  Imagine in four weeks you felt like you had more energy, you felt like you had a bigger vision for what God was up to, you're more excited for what was coming in the future than you are right now.  I think that's what God wants to do in our lives as a community of faith over the next few weeks.  We're starting a series this week that we're calling "Filling Up Christmas."  We all fill up Christmas, we just sometimes fill it up with the wrong things.  I want to point us back to the Scriptures, over the next few weeks.  I want to point us back to the way of Jesus, in hopes of really painting for us a different picture of what Christmas might look like.

Every year when I was growing up, I had elementary teachers that had us make a Christmas chain.  Each one of the links in this chain represent one day from now until Christmas Eve.  So there's twenty-two links on here and each one represents one day.  As a kid, I remember making these in elementary school and thinking, "It's coming! Christmas is on its way!"  Every time we tore off one of these links, the anticipation just started to build.  Oh man, it's one day less before that present that I have been waiting for is at my door.  It was our way, as kids, of counting time...