Is your heart ready?

It’s a dreary, cozy November day and it feels like the last calm week for a moment.

Actually it feels like the only calm week in between the fall busy and the winter busy.
 

We’re about to enter the holiday gauntlet of meals to plan and cook, gifts to curate, and events to attend.

Is your heart ready?

Is it ready to put Jesus first no matter what?  Even when Aunt Patty insists she needs to see you every Monday night to make Christmas crafts or when your kids beg for every toy in the Amazon catalog?  

There’s a real temptation this time of year, despite it being an entire holiday about Jesus, to put Him last.  There’s a real temptation to worry more about baking, decorating, and *gasp* buying crap we don’t need before spending time with the only One we do need.  May your heart be vigilant to recognize the distractions. 

Last Christmas I said no to most of the baking I normally do.  I was 6ish months pregnant with my seventh child and quite frankly worn out.  I normally bake 5-6 batches of different cookies that we enjoy munching on throughout December, but I made the choice to only make one or two of the easiest ones.  I just didn’t have the bandwidth.

My kids still bring up how I didn’t make springerles, but I can bring up that I didn’t lose my cool.  As best as I can remember, I stayed focus on what’s important: God, my husband, our family, our ministry, and our church. 

And you know what, just because I didn’t make the cookies last year doesn’t mean the tradition was lost— it just means the anticipation is even greater for those square, anise flavored morsels this year.  The kids are just teasing me, and I tease back, because I think deep down they would rather have a healthy and present mom than one burned out at both ends.  And even if they don’t know that, I know that I’m choosing a better legacy to leave them than one that teaches that every single (man made) tradition must be kept even if it wrecks all of our priorities (God>spouse>family).  

In 1 Peter 1:18-19 Peter says, “For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.”

The legacy of the world is stress and strife, but we have a perfect God who sent His perfect Son to earth to die for our sins.  Jesus then rose from the dead to be seated in the heavenly realm.  AND if we call on Him and believe in our hearts that He is our savior, we as well will be seated at a banqueting table with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Why on earth would we ever choose the ways of the world— stress and strife— over the legacy of the Lord– life and peace?

I feel a great anticipation for the Christmas season this year.  Not because of the presents and materialism (oh my, be glad my materialism ranting days are past because I could go on and on) but because I look forward to seeing how God moves in my family and my community when we are a people seeking Him.  

Christmas is the one time of year I hear worship music at the mall.  I’ve been brought to tears hearing lines like “Long lay the world in sin and error pining, ’til He appeared and the soul felt its worth.” blaring as I walk out of Walmart. 

One time of the year the whole world celebrates the greatest man to ever come to earth, the Savior of our souls.  Jesus is the only answer to this utterly broken world.

How precious a time.  How great a celebration.  May you have eyes to see.