These days before Christmas are spent in many hours of preparation. We busy ourselves planning the many aspects of the holiday season – decorating trees, writing cards, cooking family recipes and gift shopping. Weeks, days and hours are spent in anticipation.
But as high as the build up, so low is the let down. I think we all have experienced the dashed hopes and shattered expectations as we flip the calendar month to the New Year.
But let’s remember that the celebration of Christmas is not the end of the season – it’s the beginning. It’s the linchpin for the rest of the year and the rest of our lives.
Christmas merely prepares our hearts and minds showing us the way to find the Lord every day.
This Christmas season brings us grace to see our surroundings with “new eyes”. Christmas doesn’t merely happen on the outside, but on the inside.
When we have taken in the Christmas message, we now understand what is of REAL importance. We have prepared to choose what to see and what to ignore.
The message of the holiday, “Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men”, will help us see through all the contradictory surface data and into the hearts of others, recognizing them as brothers and friends.
The Lord is dwelling here in our midst, where he has always been showing himself to each of us in diverse and subtle ways every day.
Some of us will recognize his face and invite him inside because we have prepared our hearts and made them receptive.
Some of us on the other hand, will see little if anything of his face and will have to live with the hollow sadness of disappointment.
What will you see? Where will your story end? Where will mine?
Will it be with a heart that recognizes and delights in the good when it sees it, a heart that is prepared for the Lord? Or with a blind heart that can receive nothing but sadness?
Each of us will receive exactly what we have prepared ourselves to receive.
The script is ours to write and we are writing it at this very moment.
Use your pen carefully!!
