And yet, even though I slept, I did not miss out on Christmas.
Above that deep and dreamless sleep the silent hours ticked by, until that glorious moment when my eyes blinked open, and it was Christmas day! In the living room we would find the heavy stockings, the gifts and all the other Christmas surprises that bore mute testimony to the fact that our hopes had been vindicated.
How many generations of believers have looked excitedly for the promised day? They spoke often to one another about their hope in Christ as Job and I spoke with hope on those long-ago Christmas Eves. They looked to the sky and listened for the trumpet, but at some point, their limbs grew heavy, the spark went out of their eyes and their breathing stopped altogether.
And yet, even though they fell asleep they will not miss out on the promised day that they had longed to see. For Christians, Christmas is a forward-looking holiday. It is a celebration of the hope we hold that after all those deep and dreamless years of sleep in the grave those same eyes will blink open again and find that their hope in Christ was vindicated.