Preparing for Christmas

When we think of preparing for Christmas, I am sure that most of us think fairly alike.  We think about getting the decorations up and finishing the Christmas shopping.  We think of mentally getting ready for the hustle and bustle and the preparation of making sure we can handle our time at the in-laws.  We think of all of the cooking and baking.  And most of us can remember a time when we forgot something in our Christmas preparation and we make sure that we don’t forget it again.  But the regular preparations are not what I have in mind when I think of preparing for Christmas.

When we mention advent we often think of ritual and tradition.  But the idea of advent is simply the reminder that something or someone is coming.  Advent is the preparation for the coming of Christ.  We celebrate the first coming of Christ to earth on December 25 each year.  This is not the day Santa comes - it is the day set aside for the celebration of Christ coming to earth.  When you go through the list in the first paragraph, how many of those things are preparing to celebrate the coming of Christ to earth?  Is it enough to read the Christmas story before tearing into our wrapped goodies?   Is it enough to say grace before consuming the holiday food we are looking forward to?

As we came closer to Thanksgiving, numerous people asked me what I was most looking forward to about the holiday.  I think we need to remind each other of what the coming of Christ means in our lives and prepare ourselves in a way that focuses us on that which is really important.

The coming of Christ means that you and I have access to God the Father because of the forgiveness of our sins.  It means that we have freedom to do that which is right in the sight of God because of the ability given us by the Spirit of God to discern right and wrong.  It means that God has already conquered sin and death and that now we wait in anticipatory hope of the joy of the Kingdom that is coming.  The coming of Christ means He will come again and He has made promises about that second coming!  

All this and so much more.  Are you ready to really celebrate Jesus this Christmas season?