TEN YEARS GONE: Hope for the Entire Year (Revised)

The Christmas Story Is Already Happening

First Published Monday April 4, 2026 - Revised Tuesday, August 11, 2026Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.

— Isaiah 7

I first wrote about this passage in the springtime, when the Christian calendar was observing the Annunciation to Mary. That makes perfect sense, of course. If Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ near the end of December, then the announcement to Mary belongs about nine months earlier.

But here we are in August.

And perhaps that makes the point even better.

By now, Mary is showing.

At least that's how I like to think about it. Somewhere between our springtime observance of the Annunciation and our celebration of Christmas, we tend to forget that the story is still going on.

We have compressed the opening chapters of the New Testament into a few weeks called Advent. Mary hears from the angel. Joseph has his dream. Mary visits Elizabeth. John is born. Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem. Jesus is born. Shepherds arrive. Wise men begin following a star. We bring all of it out sometime after Thanksgiving and put it away again shortly after Christmas.

But these things did not happen that way.

They unfolded across months.

There was waiting.

There were ordinary mornings and evenings. Meals were prepared. Work had to be done. Mary watched her body change. Joseph had time to think about what was happening. Elizabeth experienced her own remarkable pregnancy. Families talked. Questions must have been asked.

And all the while, the Son of God was coming.

That's what I find worth remembering in August.

We don't have to wait until December to contemplate the coming of Christ. For most of the year, if we follow the traditional calendar literally, Mary is either approaching that extraordinary moment or already carrying the promised Son.

Nine months is three quarters of a year.

That leaves remarkably little of the calendar in which the story of Christ's coming is not somehow underway.

Perhaps we've made our Christian calendar too compartmentalized. We have Christmas thoughts at Christmas and resurrection thoughts at Easter, and then we put them away until their appointed season returns.

But the great events of the Gospel belong to the entire year.

We can contemplate the coming of the Son of David while the trees are green. We can think about the Cross when there is no Lent. We can celebrate resurrection long after the Easter lilies have disappeared from the sanctuary.

Birth. Death. Resurrection.

There is enough there for a lifetime, let alone a year.

So today, in the middle of August, I find myself looking backward toward that springtime announcement and forward toward Christmas.

The angel has already spoken.

Mary said yes.

And by now, perhaps, she is showing.

The waiting has already begun.