Getting Ready for Christmas

For the past week I have ignored the boxes of Christmas decorations that have cluttered my home. Somehow I have not been able to get started decorating. Ron has put the lights in the windows and the outside decorations in place. As I arrive home each evening, I have enjoyed their welcome. But, I have procrastinated with my part of this annual task.

Then, I read the on-line Upper Room Advent Reflections for December 2 in which Elizabeth J. Canham writes:

"Let go!" says God. "That was then; this is now. Walk with me on the sacred ground of the present moment, and you will find me in some unexpected places."

With this came a moment of truth for me. When I unfold the tissue paper that protects precious ornaments, memories are also revealed. Wonderful memories of days gone by often give me an attack of melancholy and I yearn for past Christmases. From childhood days to those of Robert and Daniel, thoughts of events, places and people flood around me and I sometimes allow this to sadden me. Why? Perhaps this year’s Christmas will not offer the joy and hope as times past. Perhaps the story is so familiar that I can’t believe there is anything new to be told.

I believe in some ways waiting for Christmas seems always to call us into the soul's dark night and the heart's deep winter. It is a call to let go of what has been so that God can begin to prepare us to live in expectation and anticipation of today and tomorrow. Come, Lord Jesus!