Advent One (December 1)
“You also must be
ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected.” (Matthew 24:44, (New Living Translation)
What parent, late on a Christmas
Eve, has not read those ominous words?
One Christmas Eve, Susan and I
were trying to put together a doll house for Katie’s Christmas morning surprise.
She was about six years old or so. Following the instructions as best we could
we were making progress on the dining room table when who of all people showed
but a bleary-eyed Katie, herself, wanting a glass of water. Talk about arriving
when least expected. Somehow, she didn’t notice what we were doing and we got
her back to bed with no harm done.
Sometimes, it is a lot of
assembly required, not just “some.” Don’t even get me started on decals which needed
to be applied, usually in the smallest and most difficult of spaces. Parents
can only hope that all the parts are there. And heaven help parents if the instructions
don’t make a lot of sense, even if they are in English. I’d like a word with
Santa who drops off toys with the warning label, “Some assembly required.”
But as we prepare to celebrate
Advent on Sunday, this warning label may make some sense from a faith perspective.
It would be wonderful if Christmas would arrive all neatly bundled and everything
ready and no assembly required. But to get the full import of what the Advent
of the Christ Child, truly means we have some work to do to put it all together
as the Day approaches.
So, we read the same stories
over and over again about Mary, Joseph, angels, shepherds and eventually the Magi.
We hear fresh sermons and read fresh blogs helping to interpret this wondrous
event. We sing the familiar carols, listen to beautiful choral music which celebrate
that which is on the horizon. We clean, cook and decorate in the anticipation. We
buy and wrap gifts for our loved ones. We put up the Creche which reminds us
who this season is all about.
All these pieces are important
for a full Christmas. Our instructions, the Bible stories of Christmas, help us
to understand how to connect Jesus to our lives and how to get to Christmas
with our spirits intact and properly readied. We have to be prepared to put
things in the proper priority and not get too far ahead of ourselves unless we
slip up. Although Christmas doesn’t come unexpectedly, December 25 is a lock, for
many of us it does seem to sneak up on us and come at us all of a sudden. But we
need to take these four weeks of Advent and do those things which give meaning,
which give us the hope, peace, joy and love that make Christmas shine in our
heart and souls.
Some assembly required. Our goal
is to appreciate and understand that God so loved the world that he gave his
only Son for us so that we will not perish but have everlasting life. That is a
lot to unpack and figure out and make sense of. It should make us think about who
we are, whose we are and how we are to manage the future. This Gift comes with instructions
how to interweave our lives with the One has come into our world, the Word made
flesh. Love others as I have loved you. That’s a big piece of the “puzzle” to
fit into our Christian project. It doesn’t happen all by itself, automatically.
One has to work at it, apply oneself, figure it out. Some assembly required.
God is good. We have been given
the next four weeks to put this Christmas all together. I pray and hope that
you will manage. Get ready – here comes
the Christ Child.
Dale
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