Prepare Him Room
It’s Advent. Again.
The joy of Thanksgiving behind us — of food and family and gratitude — we’re now creeping (at a dizzying pace) toward “the most wonderful time of the year.” But even as I cue the Christmas music playlist, create Pinterest boards for gifts and gear up for some of our family’s favorite holiday traditions, there’s the nagging possibility that amid all this holiday cheer and busy-ness, I just might miss it.
If I’m not careful, I will deck the halls, sing the songs, take the pictures, buy the gifts and eat the food, only to miss altogether the wonder of the incarnated Christ. With my attention on everything and everyone else, I won’t really see the God of the universe packaged in the body of a helpless baby and delivered first-class to a virgin mother in a manger. My heart will be just as far away from that very first Christmas miracle as the miles between my home and Bethlehem, my mind as far away from that supernatural reality as the couple thousands years that separate this night from that one.
It wouldn’t be the first time.
Despite all my planning and best intentions, Christmas sneaks up on me every year without fail. Unlike my disciplined sister, who does her shopping all year long, I am usually not finished until the very last minute — fearlessly testing the limits of my Amazon Prime subscription (same-day shipping anyone??) It is only when I am done making the Christmas holiday that I feel I can truly rest and enjoy it. This means the warm fuzzies are generally reserved for Christmas mornings while the kids open their gifts, a narrow window which lasts mere minutes before the wrapping paper is cleared, and the task of Christmas breakfast begins, followed by Christmas dinner prep, followed by carting the kids to and from their grandparents’ homes, followed by a very exhausted me falling into bed hours later.
No, it wouldn’t be the first time.
And not just for me. The Jews completely missed the angel’s First Noel too that night in Bethlehem. It snuck up on them in a way they didn’t expect. While they awaited the triumphal entry of a heavenly king, they missed the cries of a holy child.
We face the very same danger this holiday season. Stores clamor for our pocketbooks. Hallmark movies pull at our heartstrings. Social media is more tempting than ever. Holiday parties and dresses and festivities make us feel like we’re really “in the spirit,” but it’s all in vain if we miss Him. This Christmas will come and go and we will have simply missed the meaning, and the wonder, of it all.
Love came down to us on the very first Christmas. Love stretched Mary’s womb until she could no longer hold it and burst into our world as a crying, bare-bottomed baby who couldn’t so much as hold a bottle, yet supernaturally held the reins of the universe. Love watched through an infant’s eyes as the heavenly choir sang, as the shepherds stood amazed, as the wise men worshipped and Mary pondered.
World, meet Jesus.
Hello, Christmas.
Except only a half dozen folks celebrated that very first Christmas including a band of shepherds and a few wise men. The very Word that created the earth, wrapped itself in human flesh, descended to the world it created and surprise, surprise … life went on as usual.
And just like the world didn’t stop that night so long ago when heaven came down to us, neither will this holiday season stop for us. If we let it, Advent will come and go, Christmas will pass like another day on the calendar and before you know it, we’ll be on to the next thing, starting New Year’s resolutions and making plans for 2020.
No, the holiday season won’t stop, but maybe we can? Just a little? Maybe we can pause to tune out the noise of the news, turn off the social media notifications, silence whatever is clamoring for our attention, and focus with intensity on the wonder of Christ come to save us.
My prayer for you and me is that we won’t miss Him Christmas … that we will “fall on our knees,” that our souls will truly feel their worth, that we will experience the “thrill of hope” and “hear the angel voices.”
Let’s you and I not let another Christmas or Advent season go by without seeing the miracle of the manger and experiencing the joy — not of the circumstantial and certainly fleeting Christmas spirit — but of Emmanuel. He is God with us, come to us, for us, to save us.
May our response to Jesus this Christmas be like the wise men when they saw Him lying in the manger: worship and wonder.
May it be like the disciples when they saw Him resurrected for the first time: worship and wonder.
May it be like your own heart the moment you first believed: worship and wonder.
And if you’ve never experienced that worship or wonder, perhaps this could be the most special Christmas of all for you.
Let our hearts prepare Him room this Advent as we truly embrace the miracle of the manger and the love of a beautiful, merciful Savior.
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“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6, ESV