Are You Getting Ready

The day after Thanksgiving I had planned to sleep in. My wife and I, along with our youngest daughter and a friend she brought home for the holiday, would be heading to Ft. Worth that afternoon to help with a once-every-three-years Youth Gathering for High School students from all over Texas.

 

A 3:00 a.m. phone call changed my plans. The phone call itself was not a problem, but I could not go back to sleep. So I decided to go be a part of the hysteria that has come to be known as Black Friday. My number two daughter is getting married soon, and one of the things my wife and I wanted to give her was advertised for a great price. The first store did not have the advertised item, so on to the next place. That retailer had the item as advertised, but also had a checkout line that wended its way through the entire store. I tried to make the best of it, watching other folks in line, visiting with some of them, listening to a lot of complaints. I’ve seen shorter lines at Six Flags and Disney World! After an hour and ten minute wait, I paid for my purchase and headed for home, fairly certain that I would never again try to go shopping on the day after Thanksgiving.

 

That wait in line gave me plenty of to think. I was wondering what all I would need to do in order to get ready for Christmas this year. And the word that came to mind immediately was “Advent.”

 

Traditionally, the four weeks before Christmas are known as Advent. That word means “coming” and it has been a time for Christians to prepare themselves for the coming of our Savior.  We prepare by reading the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah who would be born from the line of Abraham and David.  We prepare by reading the New Testament promises that Jesus will come again on the Last Day. And we prepare our hearts by remembering that the Son of God has come into this world as a baby born in Bethlehem. He came to live among us as one of us. He would go through everything we go through, but would do it without sin. And He would then offer that sinless life as the payment for the sins of everyone. His coming would open heaven to all who put their faith in what He did.

 

I want to be ready to celebrate Christmas, and that has little to do with shopping or buying presents. I want to be ready to remember the tremendous gift of God’s love wrapped in human flesh who came to take my place in punishment. I want to be ready to rejoice in a gift that was long-promised, fulfilled in a virgin conceiving by the power of the Holy Spirit, seen in baby lying in a stable and realized in a crucifixion and an empty tomb.

 

Thinking about all of that gives me a gratitude that lasts long past Thanksgiving. I am going to try to spend the time between now and Christmas preparing my heart to once again rejoice in the only gift that really matters. Advent, for me, is a time of hope and expectation, a time to prepare myself to celebrate Christmas.

 

Are you getting ready?