Christmas is coming! Christmas is coming! This refrain spills from the lips of young and old. The excitement builds, as does the pressure as we all scurry around trying to make sure "Christmas" happens: bake the cookies, decorate the house, wrap the presents, throw the parties. The list stretches out exhaustively before us all. This whirlwind of activities and obligations can pull us apart, a state Anne Murrow Lindbergh* named "Zerrissenheit - torn-to-pieces-hood." This path hardly seems the way to find Jesus, the Prince of Peace. But as Jesus himself says, we must seek Him in the wilderness, not from a palace, wrapped up in soft robes. We, who are struggling in the world, are a modern day John the Baptist, preparing the way during Advent for Christ to come into our commercial, hectic, broken world. So, each task I undertake this Advent, I will try to do for the love of my family and to make ourselves ready for a grand celebration of the hope and the love and the light that is Christmas.
Our way is neither soft nor easy, but like John, we need to stay centered, not be a reed shaken in the wind. Mrs. Lindbergh wisely says we "must consciously encourage those pursuits which oppose the centrifugal forces of today." Quiet time alone, contemplation, prayer, music, a centering line of thought or reading, of study or work. We must take the time to listen for "the peace that passes all understanding" inside ourselves, as we await the miracle of His coming. What could be a better use of the season of Advent? Jesus rewards this work of preparation with miraculous healing; He says, "The dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them."
Who among us doesn't yearn for our souls to be healed, for our poor hearts to be gladdened, and for new life to awaken in our very core? Jesus, the Light of the World, returns to our broken world every Christmas. Let us spend time preparing ourselves and preparing the way in our lives, in our homes, and in our souls for His coming, once again.
*Anne Morrow Lindbergh was an American author, aviator, and the spouse of fellow aviator Charles Lindbergh. She was an acclaimed author whose books and articles spanned the genres of poetry to non-fiction, touching upon topics as diverse as youth and age; love and marriage; peace, solitude and contentment, as well as the role of women in the 20th century.
