Butterflies and Hot Tea

This article first appeared in the December 2011 issue of HHPC’s The Connecting Link.

How do you get ready for Christmas?  Shopping for gifts?  Shopping for groceries?  Making travel plans?  Getting the guest beds in your house ready?  Decorating the house?  Putting up the tree?

But how do you get yourself ready for Christmas?  How do you prepare yourself for the birth of Christ?  Reading scripture?  Hearing again the story of the angel appearing to Zechariah, and then to Mary; of Joseph’s dreams; of the journey to Bethlehem and the inn with no room; of the stable and the manger; of the shepherds and the wise men?  Singing Christmas carols?  How do you prepare yourself to receive the birth of Christ?  With acceptance and pondering, like Mary?  Glorifying and praising God, like the shepherds?  Seeking out the child and bearing gifts, like the wise men?

This year, Christmas itself is on a Sunday, and we will worship together that morning.  But what about before that?  Advent is the season leading up to Christmas, the four Sundays before Christmas and the weeks in between.  The word “advent” has Latin roots, and means “coming”.  And whether it is through church activities like Advent Family Night or Hanging of the Greens or the bringing of White Gifts; through decorating the house and preparing for guests and Christmas dinner; or through personal reflection, prayer, and Scripture reading; Advent is the time when we prepare ourselves for the coming of the Christ child.

But wait.  Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea – more than two thousand years ago.  Are we really preparing ourselves for something that is coming?  How can you prepare yourself for the coming of something that already came?  During Advent, are we simply preparing to commemorate something that happened a long time ago, something that changed all of our lives forever the moment it happened?

Yes and no.  Yes, we are preparing our hearts – as if for the first time – to receive the Christ.  We are preparing for Christ’s first coming, hearing the stories again and again as if we were ready to receive Jesus for the first time.  And there is something special in reminding ourselves of what it must be like to anticipate the coming of something we have never experienced before.  And yet there is another coming that we are also preparing for.  Scripture tells us – Jesus promises us – that He will come again to us.  We are given the promise that Jesus will be with us always, even to the end of the age, and that he will come again at the coming of the Kingdom, when all will be made right and the scales will be balanced.  As we remember the birth of Jesus, it is important also to remember the promise that Christ will come again.

So how do we prepare for that?  By remembering how it started – with a baby born to a humble couple in a small town.  By remembering that Jesus taught that the first shall be last and the last shall be first.  By living out all that we learn from Scripture and from the teachings of Jesus.  By loving God with all that we are and all that we have – our hearts, our souls, our minds, our strength.  By loving our neighbor as ourselves, and remembering that our neighbors are everyone we encounter.  By remembering that the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve.  And that is our task as well.  To love and love and love, because we were first – and still are! – loved by God.  That is our Advent preparation.  Not only in December, but every day of our lives.  See you in church Sunday!

In Joyful Anticipation,

Pastor Lara

Filed under: Newsletter Articles