The Weary World Waits: The Beauty of Expectation at Christmas

by Emily Wood Hawley

Since I was a little girl, I have loved everything about the Christmas season. Now that I am an adult, my love for Christmas has not waned. One of the aspects I love most is the anticipation, excitement, and wonder leading up to Christmas Day. I love lighting candles each Sunday of Advent and moving the marker on my Christmas countdown, all expectantly leading up to the day we join with all of Christendom to celebrate the birth of Christ.

As busy as the month of December has become, it is also a time of year where we have permission to delight and revel in the beauty, brightness, awe, and joy the season brings. It is a time of exciting anticipation, inviting us to take a break from the natural cadence of life as we anticipate the holiday.

While on earth, our hearts are wired for longing and expectation. Whether it’s counting down to the birth of a child, a wedding, or a vacation, we constantly look forward to greater things to come.

Maybe this is why the Christmas season is so bright and wonderful — it reorients our eyes and invites us to lean into this anticipation. Perhaps this reflects a deeper longing in our hearts and a desire for something greater and truer than anything this world could offer.

Waiting in Expectant Hope

In the words of C.S. Lewis, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”

As believers, the world is not our home; Heaven is. This Christmas, I have reflected on the lyrics of these classic Christmas carols that have a common theme of expectant hope for the promised Savior: “O Holy Night,” “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” and “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.”

The words of “O Holy Night” reflect this truth in this way:

Long lay the world in sin and error pining,

Till he appear’d and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!

“O Come, O Come Emmanuel” also describes this expectant longing:

O come, O come, Emmanuel,

and ransom captive Israel

that mourns in lonely exile here

until the Son of God appear.

“Come Thou Long Expected Jesus” is similarly a call for the return of Jesus Christ:

Come, thou long expected Jesus,

born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,

let us find our rest in thee.

Hope Has Arrived

Jesus Christ was born after centuries of silence as more than 400 years had passed since God spoke at the close of the Old Testament. God’s people waited expectantly for the promised Messiah, and “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son” (Galatians 4:4).

In the temple, Simeon eagerly waited for the “consolation of Israel” and would not see death until He saw the Lord’s Christ (Luke 2:25-26).

When Mary and Joseph brought the child Jesus to the temple, Simeon took Him in his arms and said: “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32).

Hope has arrived. Our King has come. The seed of the woman has crushed the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15). He has adopted us as His children and is making all things new. This is a season for rejoicing: The Savior is born and is coming again!

The Weary World Rejoices

In many ways, 2025 was full of darkness and loss. And for some, Christmas is not the most wonderful time of the year. The world is fallen, broken, tainted by sin. Even the very best this world has to offer is a pale shadow of what is to come.

May our longing for something greater focus our gaze heavenward and toward Christ. The world is indeed weary, but in Jesus, we rejoice!

This Christmas, as we celebrate the arrival of Jesus in a manger, may we tune our hearts to anticipate the Second Coming of King Jesus and all that is prepared for us in Christ.

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).

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For more from Emily Wood Hawley, communications specialist and writer for Liberty Counsel, click HERE.