Getting Ready


By Rev. Steve Meysing, Assistant to the Bishop



It had been a glorious Christmas Eve service. Our regular pianist and flautist were supplemented by the college student home with her cello and the children who’d not left for vacation. The new Advent and Christmas decorations transformed our worship space. The singing was inspired, the candlelight so warm and the mood even warmer. I don’t recall anybody being in a hurry to leave.

Just before leaving, Paul, one of our most faithful members, asked a question that sticks with me a dozen years later. After saying what a beautiful worship service it was, Paul asked, “So is that all there is, Pastor? After all the work done to get ready for Christmas—the shopping, the concerts, the decorating, the parties—Christmas is over now? When do we get to enjoy Christmas?”

Getting ready can be hard work. This Advent and Christmas, give yourself the gift of a tiny break from the work and spending a few moments with our Lord. After each hour of working to get ready, take a three minute break and think about why you treasure Jesus, what he means in your life, why you’d like to meet him. Tell Jesus those things. Then when your work of getting ready is done and you’re ready to enjoy these Christian seasons of waiting and rejoicing, spend three minutes a day looking at a creche, a manger scene, and reflect on where you saw Christ out in the world and in others during the last day.

Getting ready can also be done and enjoyed when we pause and let the lights and sights, the sounds and smells remind us why God loved us enough to become like us and live among us.

 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him…. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” (Luke 12:35-36, 40; NIV)

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