Skip to main content

Experiencing

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.  And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
John 1:14,16 

 And in these last few days, it becomes personal.  We have built up our sense of longing.  We have tried to prepare our hearts.  We have heard again the stories of those who were part of that first Christmas.  And now the Word is ready to dwell with us.  Are we ready to see his glory?  to receive grace?  to experience all that he has for us?

 If you're like me, you may still be thinking, "no! I'm not ready!"  The Christmas cake only has marzipan on it, there's tons of people we never did send a Christmas card to, and the presents - well, they'll probably get wrapped by Christmas Eve.  And even after all this Advent blogging, I still feel  much more like a dusty old stable than a sparkling house.

 But you know what?  Christmas Day will arrive on Wednesday regardless.  And if I spend it looking at all the things I never got done, I won't enjoy it at all.  But if I make the decision to fully experience the day - the family, friends, carols, presents - then I probably won't even remember those cute decorations I didn't get around to making.

 And Jesus, fortunately, doesn't wait until we've got ourselves all cleaned up and perfect.  He plunges right in, dusty stable and all, and says, "Hey, I'm here now.  Just look at me, and I'll deal with all those things you thought you had to do."

 So, ready or not, let's make the decision to experience Christmas, and to experience Christ.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mr White Watson of Bakewell

Once upon a time, back in 1795 or so, lived a man who was always asking questions.  The kind of questions like, "Why is glass transparent?" or "Why do fruit trees grow better in that place than in this place?" or "What does the earth look like underneath the surface?"  This last question was one that he was particularly interested in, and he went so far as to work out what the rock layers looked like where he lived, and draw little pictures of them.  Now he was a marble sculptor by trade (as well as fossil hunter, mineral seller, and a few other things) so he thought it would be even better to make his little pictures in stone.  That way he could represent the layers using the actual rocks they were composed of.  Over the course of his lifetime he made almost 100 of these tablets, as he called them. Then he died.  And no one else was quite as interested in all those rocks and minerals as he was.  His collection was sold off, bit by bit, and the table...
Post a Comment
Read more

Laid-back Lille and Bustling Brussels

After a night in a tiny AirBnB in Canterbury , where there were chocolates on the table and artwork on every inch of the walls, we boarded a ferry with an absolute minimum of fuss, enjoyed a smooth crossing of the channel, and were deposited in the decidedly unscenic surroundings of the port of Dunkirk two hours later. Once we got past the cranes and shipping containers, though, the countryside was flat but pleasant. We stopped at a small town called Cassel, reached by cobbled roads winding up a hill. On the summit was an old windmill and a topograph telling you the distances to various improbable places; St Omer may have been visible in the haze, but Manchester was surely over the horizon.  In Lille, we found our apartment, unpacked the luggage (one rucksack apiece), and set out to find food. Our first choice was fully booked, so we embarked on that kind of aimless wandering where everyone is hungry and no one wants to actually choose a restaurant. We reached a Lebanese place call...
Post a Comment
Read more

Preparing

Graham and I have a small difference of opinion when it comes to cleaning for visitors.  He thinks I have perfectionist tendencies.  I think I'm doing the bare minimum.  After all, I have to at least pick up all the toys and clean up that pile of crumbs that keeps appearing under Toby's dining chair, don't I?  And while I've got the vacuum cleaner out, the living room and hall always need doing.  And there's no way our guests want to see all that dirty washing up, so I'll just do that.  And wipe all the counters.  And file all those pieces of paper that have been sitting there for weeks.  And... what?  Perfectionist?  Me? Of course, this may be one of those male/female divides.  Most of my female friends regard having guests over as an opportunity to make the house look reasonable for at least a few hours.  Because all that clutter just builds up.  A pile of paper there, a stack of laundry waiting to be put away, those o...
1 comment
Read more