Living into the Future

When you live in Cambodia, surrounded by a culture of those who are unfamiliar with Western holidays and traditions, even remembering when certain holidays ARE can be a bit of a challenge.  I mean, with Irish in my background, we enjoyed St. Patrick’s Day when I was growing up.  We ate corned beef and cabbage.  We drank green milk.  It was fun.  Now, St. Patrick’s Day can come and go without a trace!

 

That’s not as true of some of the major Christian holidays, of course, like Christmas and Easter.  The church here in Cambodia does remember those, although Easter is still a bit fuzzy.  People have asked me more than once when a holiday actually falls.  Here in Cambodia, Christmas is really all throughout December, and people don’t always realize that December 25 is the official holiday.

 

A while back, all this holiday-tracking made me realize something.  We usually celebrate a “holiday season” leading up to a holiday, and consider it finished when the holiday finally arrives.  The “Christmas season” generally kicks off around Thanksgiving, and lasts all month with party after party and all.  (Unless you work in retail, and then the Christmas season starts around Halloween or even earlier!)  But when December 25 rolls around, that’s the end.  People in the United States would probably look at you kind of funny if you invited them to a Christmas party on December 29, right?  The actual event marks the end of the season.

 

The same is true of Easter, and – in my home growing up, at least – of vacations.  The weeks and days leading up to our family vacation were a time of excitement and anticipation, as we eagerly awaited the great day of departure.  We weren’t nearly as excited when the vacation was over!

 

Why is this?  Why are we so excited leading up to a special event, and the excitement ends thereafter?  Why don’t we celebrate the Christmas season after Christmas?

 

I have a thought, and you can take it for what it’s worth.  I suggest this pattern of excitement exists because the joy of anticipation is part of our humanity.  We were made to live into the future.  We get excitement, joy, pleasure, and satisfaction in expectation of what’s coming, now what has already come and gone.  That’s just natural.

 

It’s not that the past is unimportant.  After all, remembering and celebrating the past is an important aspect of having holidays to begin with.  We usually celebrate holidays with traditions, which tie us to the past.  But when one holiday ends, we begin looking forward to the next one – because we are intrinsically drawn to the future.

 

I think this may be significant, because that’s the pattern of the Christian life.  We celebrate and honor the past, but we are living into the future.  We are made for the joy of anticipation of all the shalom that God has in store for us.

 

Happy holiday.  Whichever one is next.