Luke 1:26-38
Ready or not, the Christmas season is here. You have no choice about whether or not it comes. You cannot control the advance of time. You cannot prevent Christmas from coming in 24 days. So are you ready? Well, it depends on what we mean by ready. What would have to be in place for you to feel ready for Christmas?
Would having your Christmas cards written or family photo produced mean you’re ready? Would a cleaned house and a cleared calendar help? What if you’re gifts were already wrapped or purchased or you at least had an idea of what to get for gifts? Maybe you would feel ready if you’ve worked out this entire year in preparation for the December marathon.
Or maybe there’s a truckload of work that needs to be done between now and Christmas. So if you got your papers done, projects finished and exams written, would you feel ready? I remember in University and Seminary barely having time to think about Christmas the first half of December. Sometimes exams went up to Dec 22 or 23. So I would pull of the half hour Christmas shopping trip on December 24 to get some gifts.
December and Christmas come along and basically interrupt our normal routines. We do lots of things in December that we don’t do any other time of the year. December can also be the most stressful time of the year for some.
How prepared or unprepared do you feel for Christmas? Well, you’re more prepared than the participants of that first Christmas. At least you know Christmas is coming. Had Mary gotten a nursery ready for the arrival of the baby? Had Joseph googled the route from Nazareth to Bethlehem and booked a hotel on some travel website? Had the shepherds inserted “visit a baby in Bethlehem manger on so and so date” into their calendars so they could have their flocks in the right fields to accommodate this appointment?
