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Are you ready for Christmas? During the season of Advent – which annually begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and leads up to December 25 – followers of Jesus traditionally look for ways to prepare themselves for the coming of God’s own Son into the world. Throughout December we’ll ponder ways that we can ready ourselves to receive Jesus, once again, into our own hearts.
Ready or Not
Ready or not, another Christmas is about to arrive.
In just a few weeks, the world will celebrate God’s radical choice to come to earth as a human being. Christmas is coming – whether or not you happen to be ready.
If it makes you feel any better, not that many people were ready for the first Christmas, either.
King Herod certainly wasn’t ready – not ready to give up his throne to some rival king. Jerusalem’s Bible teachers weren’t ready – not ready to abandon their theories concerning whom the Messiah would be and how he might make his grand entrance. Even ordinary people weren’t ready for a baby, of all things – and a baby born out of wedlock to a peasant girl from Hicksville.
Years later, however, the apostle Paul put it rather poetically in Galatians 4:4: “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman…”
When did Jesus come into the world? He came right on God’s schedule. He appeared when the time had fully come – whether we were ready or not.
The passing of the years reminds us that we are almost never ready for the next big moment in life. That’s because God rarely chooses to let us know when such moments are about to happen. Ready or not, we all end up experiencing events that we did not schedule and traveling on roads that we did not choose.
Maybe right now you’re on a road you never planned on taking.
Maybe you happen to be in one of its roughest sections, or at a place where you have to admit that you’re a little bit scared. Last year on Christmas you weren’t thinking about cancer…or losing your job…or feeling desperately alone.
Ready or not, we all go down roads that we don’t choose. What assurances do we have? Only this one – we never go down such roads alone.
That’s because Jesus is Immanuel, “God With Us.”
Each weekday between now and Christmas, we’ll pause and consider a different way to prepare ourselves for this season – to be ready to welcome the fullness of Christ into our hearts and lives. How can we be ready for Christmas intellectually? Physically? Relationally? Emotionally?
For children, it seems as if December can never get here fast enough. For those of us who are older, it seems incredible that another December is already here.
The more we sense that the sand is racing through the hourglass, the more we yearn for real significance and lasting security. In the company of others we find ourselves wondering, “Does anybody think that I am a useful person? Does anybody really care? Do other people respect me, love me, or even notice me?” These are kinds of questions that drive the makeup industry, the clothing industry, and the Botox industry.
God’s response is a pair of miracles.
Christmas is the miracle of significance. God cares so much about your humanity that he decided to share it. Easter is the miracle of security. What we discover from the resurrection of Jesus is that something will indeed survive our own deaths: We will.
That means that what we do now takes on a whole new meaning. There are no trivial moments. This moment counts forever. Nothing that really matters will ever be lost…if we ourselves belong to God.
Are you willing to bet your life on that? Are you willing to let go of the life you currently have – which you cannot keep – in order to receive from Jesus a life that you can never lose?
Maybe for you this Christmas will turn out to be the fullness of time – the time to surrender your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength to Jesus as never before.
David Peterson, who was pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Spokane, Washington, remembers a time that his little daughter came into his study while he was working feverishly. “Daddy,” she said, “can we play?” He answered, “I’m awfully sorry, sweetheart, but I’m right in the middle of finishing a sermon. How about in one hour? We can play then.”
“OK, Daddy,” she said. “And as soon as you’re done, I’m going to give you a great big hug.” Peterson said, “Now that will be wonderful.”
His daughter walked away but got only as far as the door, at which point she did an abrupt U-turn, ran back towards him and squeezed him with all of her might. “Daddy,” she said, “I just wanted you to know what you have to look forward to.”
What are you looking forward to?
Ready or not, Christmas is coming.
May this be an Advent in which you’re able to be more ready than ever.