Making Room For Jesus

I am the most guilty of getting so caught up in all the trappings of the holidays that I usually put Jesus on the back burner. My bible study time goes out the window, my prayer time goes out the window and all my focus is on shopping, baking, wrapping, mailing, decorating, partying, etc. etc. But in the last few years I have tried to be more intentional about simplifying and focusing on the true "reason for the season". It was several years ago when Sara Snyder talked about Advent and Advent wreaths and candles and since that time I have tried to learn a little bit more about Advent each year.

Just in case some of you don't know. The Christian liturgical season of Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day. This year that would have been yesterday, December 2nd. This is a season, not of celebration, but of anticipation and expectation, when we prepare to welcome Christ at Christmas. Advent concerns three ways Christ comes to us: long ago, as God incarnate in the newborn Jesus in Bethlehem; today, in our lives and our hearts, to awaken us to Life; and someday, as Christ triumphant, redeeming the entire world and bringing history to a close.

After Advent comes the traditional Christmas season - the festival celebration of Christ's coming - which begins at the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve and winds to a close on the day of Christmas, January 5. Can you imagine 12 days of celebration rather than one? Now that's more than worthy of weeks of anticipation!

CHRISTMAS PRAYER
Lord Jesus, we remember
that you were born into this world
on the first Christmas day.
Help us to remember,
that you were born in a stable
and cradled in a manger,
and so keep us from coveting wealth
and comfort and ease and luxury
which you never enjoyed.
Help us to remember,
that there was no room for you in the inn,
and grant that our lives
may never become so crowded
that there is no room in them for you.
Help us to remember,
that to you there came the shepherds
and the wise men,
and grant that learned and simple,
high and humble,
great and small,
may be joined in worshipping you
and loving you.
Help us to remember,
that you grew up in an ordinary home,
and went to school
and worked in a carpenter's shop;
and so grant that we may think
no task too humble and too common
our hands to touch,
when you, the Lord of Glory,
lived among the common things.
This we ask, for your love's sake.

1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving. I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge— because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.