Some of us are trying to prepare ourselves for Christmas through this season of Advent. We truly walk through a Santa-centric, mall-tastic, blaringly advertised, hurry-up-and-buy-Christmas-now alien land. Now, if I may, contrast the media's messages to Leslie Leyland Field's poem about the coming of Christ.

Let the stable still astonish:

Straw-dirt floor, dull eyes,

Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen;

Crumbling, crooked walls;

No bed to carry that pain,

and then, the child,

rag-wrapped, laid to cry

in a trough.

Who would have chosen this?

Who would have said, "Yes,

Let the God of all the heavens and earth

be born in this place"?

Who but the same God

who stands in the darker, fouler rooms of our hearts

and says, "Yes,

Let the God of Heaven and Earth

be born here, in this place."

Leslie Leyland Fields

Upon learning that God was sending Love down to earth, the wealthy Magi of the East became determined to find the baby Messiah, so they spent time searching the desert, through the dark night, guided by the light of a single star, for Christ - until they found Christmas. Those who took the time to seek Christ discovered life-giving, life-altering Love at the end of their journey. When the labor of their desert quest yielded results, they reverently knelt down in praise.

As modern Magi, how do we even begin to pick out the light of the Star in the East amid the gaudy, flashing, neon, "Sale!" signs constantly bombarding us? Without His help, we will get lost and confused in the desert darkness, so we must pray. Our only way forward is to ask for God's help to focus on Him and Christ's coming. We must fix our eyes on His ways and rely upon His strength to lead us back onto the pathway to Peace.