Prepare Him Room...


As I ushered my kids out the door this morning; hugs, kisses, and assurance that each had their lunch, a thought fleeted through my mind.

1 week until Christmas.

Now, when that thought comes to you, how does it make you feel?

Exited?

Or overwhelmed?

When that thought came in my head, my first thought was of excitement.  Excited for Christmas break, for the kids and my husband, a school teacher, to be home for 2 weeks, no homework, no lunches to pack. Excited to have evenings at home together and celebrating Christmas together as a family.

And then the next thought came charging through: I still have so much to prepare.

I looked up the definition of prepare. Yeah, yeah, I know what the word means. But, just like reading lyrics to a song can help you better understand it, reading a definition of a well known word can bring new light.

Prepare.  
1 a : to make ready beforehand for some purpose, use, or activity
   b : to put in a proper state of mind
 
As I looked at this definition it struck me. As we lead up to December 25th, we spend so much time on the first part of that definition. How much time do we spend on that second part?
 
We have all sort of prep work for the activities. We have so much to get ready for.
 
But how much time do we spend getting ourselves in the proper state of mind?
 
This time leading up to Christmas is called Advent. The anticipation of Jesus' arrival -  the arrival of the celebration of His birth, the arrival of His Grace as we seek Him in repentance, and the 'someday-arrival' of His Second Coming. 
 
How much time, in the last few weeks, have we spent reflecting on that? 
 
Well, it's not too late to redeem it. For the next 7 days, as we lead up to Christmas Day, the celebration of our King's arrival, we have so much to prepare for Him.  But none of these things can be seen, they all start inward.
 
No worries, you can still bake those cookies and get that last minute shopping done. But in the midst of that, I invite you to come along with me, to contemplate, how you, how I, can prepare Him room.
 

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