Countdown to Christmas: Day 19. "The Chipmunk Song"

The Chipmunk Song

"We can hardly stand the wait
Please Christmas, don't be late."

The Chipmunks are Christmas's most famous rodents. In their holiday hit song, Alvin, Simon and Theodore beg for Christmas to hurry up. After all, they have been good and they know exactly what they want: a trick-performing plane and a hula hoop. The anticipation is killing them; Christmas needs to come faster.

As a kid, I felt the same way. I remember when the massive Sears and JC Penney catalogs would arrive at the end of November. My siblings and I would put them on a table in our basement with a pen and a yellow legal part and start our research. I'd look at Hot Wheels cars and Star Wars figures, my sisters would peruse the pages and pages of baby dolls and Barbies. I'd start with a draft list and, over the course of the next few days, tweak and hone it. Eventually, I sharpened it to a few items I had the best chance at getting. I filed my request with mom and dad and waited.

It was only a couple weeks until Christmas, but the wait was torturous. I knew the exact day my gifts would arrive and the wait still seemed unbearable. That said, consider those living in Bethlehem some 2000 years ago. Their families had been waiting for generations, centuries even, for the arrival of the promised Messiah. Seasons came and went, kingdoms rose and fell, thousands were born, then buried. For them, this "Christmas" was a long time coming. But for God, it wasn't late. From God's perspective, Christmas was right on time.

No, the answers to our deepest longings are guaranteed to arrive with a fancy bow on the morning of December 25th. But the answers to our prayers are coming, and though the wait is difficult, God promises to be right on time.