Ready for Christmas?

Ready for Christmas?

Are you ready for Christmas? How many times have you been asked this question during the past days? The implication of this question is: are you physically ready?

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care

In the hope that Saint Nicholas soon would be there.

For many “being ready for Christmas means the house carefully cleaned and beautifully decorated; the last present bought, wrapped and delivered; the cards addressed and mailed; the tree decorated and the “stockings hung by the chimney with care.”

If this is all that “being ready for Christmas” means then Christmas becomes a burden to be endured rather than a blessing to be enjoyed. For then the joy of seeing gifts piled high is beclouded by the memory of debts piled high; the Christmas cards lose some of their radiance to the fear that someone has been forgotten; the real spirit of Christmas is robbed of its splendor because of bodies worn out from the physical exertion expended in “being ready for Christmas.”

Being ready for Christmas” means more than physical preparation, more than a house made ready, more than receiving and giving of gifts and cards. To be ready for Christmas means spiritual preparation, a heart made ready, and receiving and sharing God’s “inexpressible Gift.”

Mary was ready for Christmas because she was ready for Him. “Mary, peace be with you. The Lord is with you, and He has greatly blessed you. You will become pregnant, and give birth to a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.” Mary answered, “I am a virgin, how can this be?” The heavenly messenger answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and God’s power will rest upon you, and the baby that will be born unto you will be the Son of God … for there is not a thing that God cannot do.” And Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant.”

A heart and a life is “ready for Christmas” when it is ready to have faith in the presence, the power and the provision of God.

Whenever I am prone to doubt and wonder,

I check myself, and say, the Mighty One

Who mad the solar system cannot blunder,

And for the best all things are done.

He who sets the stars on their eternal course,

Has fashioned this strange earth by some sure plan.

Bow lo … bow lo to those majestic forces,

Nor dare to doubt their wisdom, puny man.

You cannot put one star in motion,

You cannot shape one forest leaf,

Nor fling a mountain up, nor sink an ocean,

Presumptuous pygmy, large with unbelief.

You cannot bring one dawn of regal splendor,

Nor bid the day to shadowy twilight fall,

And dare you doubt the One who has done all?

No one is ready for Christmas until he has risen above the weariness incurred in the physical preparation for Christmas and in faith received the wondrous miracle of Christmas. We are not ready at all for Christmas until we are prepared to receive in the simple child like faith of Mary to accept the miracle of God’s redeeming grace. The grace of God that brings salvation to all men has appeared to you this Christmas season. “Joy to the world the Lord has come … Let every heart prepare Him room. … Where believing hearts will receive Him, the dear Christ enters in.”

Joseph was ready for Christmas because there was love in his heart. When Joseph, the man to whom Mary was engaged leaned that she was pregnant, being a man of stern principle, decided to break the engagement but to do it quietly, as he did not want to publicly disgrace her. But in a dream the angel came to him and said, “Joseph, don’t hesitate to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit … When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel commanded, and brought Mary home to be his wife.” Here is a living personification of love that “believes all things, endures all things, hope all things … a love that never f ails.”

Dr. Howard Thurman has written: “The expression of love is either a necessity or a luxury. If it be a luxury, it is expendable; if it be a necessity, then to deny it is to perish, so simple is the reality and so terrifying, ultimately there is only one place of refuge on this planet for any man … that is in another man’s heart. To love is to make of one’s heart a swinging door.” Love is the response to faith. It enables one to open the door of his heart to a wider view of life and a more Christian understanding of man. Only love, not law, is capable of coping with the problems that beset our age. Only a heart wherein love abides, is ready for Christmas.

Mary and Joseph were ready for Christmas because they were humble and obedient. Mary said to the angel, “I am the Lord’s servant, I am willing to do whatever He wants.” Joseph awoke from his dream and did as he had been commanded. They were ready to pour contempt on all their pride and become willing instruments of God, channels through which the Matchless Child of Christmas might be given to all mankind. Their faith would be demonstrated in obedience and their love would culminate in action.

For them religion was not a negative approach to life. It did not consist in congratulating themselves for not transgressing the laws of God and society. They gloried not in the fact that they did not lie, cheat and defraud their fellow man, speak unkindly of their neighbors, impugn the motives of others, or forsake the gathering together of themselves at worship. For them religion was a positive approach to life. As humble servants of the Most High God they would help the helpless, visit the sick and sorrowing, befriend the friendless, love the unlovely, minister to their enemies and share with all mankind the rich blessing of their faith and love.

Are you ready for Christmas? We are ready when by faith our ego centric personalities are made humble in the crucible of God’s redeeming love to be fashioned according to His purpose and will for our lives. We are ready for Christmas when we are ready to pray, “Spirit of the living God fall afresh on me: break me – melt me – mold me – fill me – use me, Spirit of the living god, fall afresh on me.”

Dr. Robert W Kirkpatrick

Whitfield Estates Presbyterian Church, Sarasota, Fl. December 20, 1970