Why we adore the Christ child

The faint sounds of the old piano were bouncing down the stairs where we lined the hallway waiting for our cue to march in. The teacher was listening for the right notes to start our practiced processional down the long candlelit aisle. It was Christmas Eve, and our nervous voices were about to perform our well-rehearsed lines of the treasured Christmas story.

Decking the halls were the neatly placed decorations along with the smell of crisp, freshly starched white shirts, mingling with the cinnamon and evergreen scents. The boys stood wringing their hands hoping they remember their lines, the girls twirled in their new red velvet or plaid dresses, their small feet slipped into shiny, patent leather shoes.

All the endless Sunday afternoon practices were leading up to this night...the long awaited and annual production of the nativity story in front of aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpa's, teachers, and parents. The Christmas story would come to life through the eyes of children.

As the pianist pounded the keys, my heart jumped into my throat. The notes engaged my timidity. We stood perfectly still at the entrance of the auditorium, each parental eye was trained on their own loved one. They looked at us with Christmas anticipation, I'm sure I was not the only child filled with fear and trepidation.

"Let's not forget why we are here", whispered the director. It's Christmas Eve!"

We paced down that long, poinsettia lined aisle, with our eyes trained on the stage. I didn't remember it being so large and looming in practice.

We began to sing...

O Come All Ye Faithful...
joyful and triumphant!

O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;
Come and behold him, born the King of Angels:
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come,
Let us adore Him,
 Christ the Lord.

I really didn't take the invitation from that song to heart until later in life. In those program days, I was just making my way to the end of the program to get the brown paper bag filled with the sweet treats. Every year the bag held the predictable apple, candy cane, nuts, and some of that hard ribbon candy only grandmas would buy. Joyful chocolate never made the cut.

It wasn't until years later that I really beheld the fail-proof invitation to worship the main character of the manger story.

Jesus invites us all to worship and find joy and peace while we kneel before Him. He invites us to worship Him as King. The nativity invites everyone, the lost, the lonely, the unloved, and the forlorn, burdened and carefree.

When we lift our heads to the small Wonder in the Christmas story, we see Hope come to life.

Now every Christmas I look forward to experiencing Christ's invitation of His Presence during Christmas. It brings to life the real hope that we all have in Christ, the reason that He came to earth.  

Oh Come you faithful hearts and receive the baby King, come with child-like faith. 

Leave your worries, your problems, and your cares at the stable door. The perfect baby Jesus is born to the world. The story that is told year after year,  is a holy anthem as it makes our hearts sing, and the faithful who come, adore Him.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith… Hebrews 12:2

What can we remember about the baby Jesus? That He is God incarnate, not just a nicely dressed Christmas characters acted out by children using their best memorization skills and polite behavior.

It's a very true story that only makes this perfect miracle believable by only by faith. God made a way for something impossible. This simple story of Jesus in baby's skin makes the impossible believable.

Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus is born. Our takeaway from the manger is that He remains with us today.

Remember Christ and all that He has done for us. Comfort from the Comforter.

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned;the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD your God,the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…" Isaiah 43:2-3

Remember. God makes impossible things happen. Tomorrow ...remember that God is real and that God is with us.

Oh come, let us ADORE Him. Please come....

This is the time

On Day 4 of this month of preparing for Christmas, I am up at 5 a.m.   You're thinking...."What in the world?"  Today's post is all about making time for Christ these days of this season of Christmas.

To make room for Jesus in your home and hearts, we have to make room for Him in our focus, our plans, our holiday, our days, our weeks, our hours, our thoughts, our minds and yes, our hearts.

That's what a preparing does.  This time of preparation isn't about ticking this off your to-do list of things to read, or checking another day of Advent devotionals off your calendar.   This time is about inviting God to be a part of why we are celebrating Christmas in the first place.

Advent days bring about ways we focus on the coming of the greatest Gift to mankind.  The focus forces us to think about time.  The preparation forces us to wrestle with our clocks, timers, and alarms.

Our use of time is such a big thing to manage.

Time is the elusive commodity that is so easily sacrificed during this time of year.  I believe we take advantage of the fact that there be more time tomorrow to write a post, or send a thoughtful note or to invite someone to church, for some of you, to make amends with someone you need to forgive.

Invitations to spend time with someone, take time.  Invitations force us to prepare and make preparations us for an important event.

Will you invite Jesus into your adventurous days?  Would your to-do list be different if you considered that today could be your last?

The prophet Isaiah prepared the people of Israel with an Advent invitation.

Isaiah 11: 1-2, 10  "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.  The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him - the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord - and he will delight in the fear of the Lord....In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious."

Isaiah's invitation welcomes a time with Rest, with lasting, eternal time.

A Forever Divine Invitation was coming as a Banner "for the peoples; the nations..."  His invitation was a foretaste of Christ's coming, an epic birth announcement in the days ahead.

Time to get everything done these days is so hard to manage.  Or is it?

Preparation takes time.  And these days of Advent make us think about preparing.  Preparing helps us focus on the event, the guests, the people who you want to spend more time with.  The focus on the party or that coffee date together is appointed time.  To get the most out of these invitational days we have to sacrifice some time.

Advent is a season of preparation for the Divine.

How many of you have said this within the last week..."I need more time!?!"

Let's think back just 6 days ago.  Who of you were preparing for a big day of giving thanks?  We made time to eat and give a momentary nod of thanks for the meal before us to the God who invented time.  We thanked Him for the blessings on and around our table.  With grateful hearts we gathered and asked Him to bless our lives.  We invited Him to be a part of our days of counting the blessings around us.

And then...the Christmas season began and all of a sudden in the next 24 hours, we (me included) spent some of our grateful minutes in long lines giving thanks to God for saving us some pennies on a gift.  On the very day we thanked God big we invited the busy blur of gift shopping to begin.

I'm not proud of the way I spent my time that day.

So in these days of Advent, let's focus our blurring minutes to the manger shall we?

Even though we acknowledge that God is the giver of all time, let's set aside some time to worship Him today, and tomorrow, and the rest of our days.  Worship prepares us for a Coming.  It prepares our hearts to receive our Savior.  The posture of prayer, gratitude and worship prepares us for our eternal Rest, which has been described as "glorious".

Having more focused time on the Christmas miracle during these busy, blurry days would be a glorious gift.

My prayer:  God, we lay our minutes, our days before you.  Prepare our hearts and spirits to receive what you have for us today.  There are days that we invite so many silly things in.  Worry, stress, sin, and many messes.  God we know you are the giver of all the minutes and each of has an appointed time to meet you face to face.  What a glorious day that will be.  Until that instant, God teach us to number our days.  Focus our hearts on your Presence, so that today we can posture our day to receive your love, peace and joy.  Teach us to manage the gift of time well. Don't give us more hours but more of You in these days of preparation for your coming.  Give us more meaning to our preparations.  In our blurry moments, may we see Your hand on our days.

How will you make more room for rest these days of Advent?  For me, today I'm up at 5 am.