Note from Petey
December 2025

Every December, I find myself feeling the tension between wanting Christmas to hurry up and wanting it to slow down. On the one hand, I love the lights, the music, the traditions, and all the ways the season sparks joy. On the other hand, I feel the weight of the busyness, the pressure to get everything done, and the low-grade anxiety that maybe we won’t actually experience the meaning of the season before it rushes by.

And maybe that’s exactly why Christmas still matters. It can be easy to let our appreciation and commitment to the Advent season slip. After all, we’ve done it many times (some of us more than others), and it usually seems to fly by with little change in our lives.

At the center of this season is a story shaped by waiting. Israel waited hundreds of years for a word from God. Mary waited nine months wondering how God would fulfill His promise. And Joseph waited in the tension between doubt and obedience, trusting that God was doing something he couldn’t yet see. The story of Christmas is soaked in waiting.

But, to be clear, it is not passive waiting.
It’s expectant waiting.
It’s hopeful waiting.
It’s courageous waiting.

Most of us are waiting for something right now. It might be big, but it’s probably small. Maybe you’re waiting on clarity, healing, reconciliation, direction, relief, or just a reprieve from a world that feels a bit too heavy. And waiting is never comfortable. But one thing waiting does is create space for God to move. It’s in the waiting that our faith deepens, that our desires get refined, and that our hope stretches its legs. Waiting prepares us to recognize Jesus and respond when He arrives.

Christmas still matters because God still comes to us. He comes not when everything is perfect, not when the calendar clears, and not when our plans line up just right; He comes right in the middle of our waiting. The child born in a manger reminds us that God shows up in the ordinary, the messy, and the unexpected. This is who He is. This is what He does. This is what He still does today!

So, wherever you find yourself this month, don’t rush past the waiting. If you’re joyful, don’t rush past. If you’re burned out, don’t rush past. If you’re jaded or ambivalent or exhausted or hopeful or at peace, don’t rush past the waiting. God is at work in it! And Christmas reminds us that the God who came near then still comes near now.

May you sense His presence in the waiting and His joy in the arrival.

Much love,
Petey