When I was a little boy, I would awaken each Christmas morning and for just a moment, not realize it was Christmas. In that pause, I thought it was just another day until my young mind kicked into gear. When the realization – THIS IS CHRISTMAS MORNING! – finally hit me, I threw off my covers and ran down the hall into our living room where the tree was lit with all kinds of beautiful presents awaiting the arrival of my brother and me. On a few of those Christmas mornings, the red paint of a new Schwinn bicycle reflected the glittering lights of the tree. It was a magic moment where I could literally not breathe because joy had sucked my breath away.

That old memory came to mind this morning as I sat in my writing chair looking across our living room at a smaller version of the Christmas tree from my childhood. Our kids are now adults. No one wakes up and realizes it’s Christmas and runs in their pajamas into our living room. We are a calmer version of our childhood selves. Life has seasons and I am learning to embrace the good in each one.

That moment, when as a boy, I would lay still in bed in my first waking moment not realizing it was Christmas morning is where some of you are living now as an adult. You think your future will be more of the same, but something is going to shift for you in the coming New Year. God is going to return a joyful and childlike expectation to you of His goodness. He only wants you to believe it is possible. 

A moment of sheer joy is coming to you. It will be like it was for a young boy lying in bed who in a split second realizes its Christmas morning and throws off his bed covers to race toward the gifts of joy left under the tree by his loving parents. You are about to wake up to a new reality after a long season of personal struggle and weightiness to a new season of freedom and inexpressible joy knowing your Father in Heaven has prepared an unwrapping of things you never thought possible.