Preparing
Some of our Crafters gathered this morning and put up a Chrismon Tree in the Church Gathering area. A Chrimon Tree is adorned with ancient symbols for Christ and only decorated in gold and white. It is very beautiful. Shawn and Susan are working on decorating our sanctuary as we prepare for the Advent and Christmas season. I’m guessing at some point over the long weekend we’ll get our Christmas tree out and up at our house. We were talking about it a few days ago and I made some suggestions to Amy and Lydia that we do something a little different this year with our Christmas tree. I thought I had some really good suggestions this year. Yea, that didn’t go over very well. I think Amy said something like, “if you want to get your own tree and decorate it yourself and put it in the back room, that’s up to you, but you’re not messing up our family Christmas Tree.”
Shawn is preparing!
I suspect that most of us over the next few days and weeks and will be getting our homes and our offices ready for Christmas. We will decorate and put up lights. We will host parties and go shopping, wrap presents, spend time in the kitchen, watch holiday movies and shows on TV. We will get together with friends and family and express our love and friendship to each other. It is the most wonderful time of the year, the song reminds us. And it is wonderful. It is busy, but it is wonderful and I look forward to it every year.
I simply want to encourage us over the next few weeks to get our hearts ready for Christmas as well. We can prepare our hearts through regular worship, through the singing of songs, through prayer and scripture reading. We prepare our hearts through acts of service. We prepare our hearts through the giving of our money to those who work with the poor. I hope that we’ll be as intentional about preparing our souls as we are about preparing our homes. We do that and it will make for a great Christmas, even if my wife and kids don’t appreciate my Christmas tree ideas.
Peace Charles