I am ready for Christmas!  The tree is up, decorations fill the house and jazz Christmas music is playing on my Spotify.  All the elements are in place for a blissful holiday season. Or are they?  While the house is ready on the inside, I am not so sure about the outside.  The weather outside may not be frightful yet, but it is certainly cold.  26 degrees that feels like 11 is not my typical cup of tea, so I am really trying to figure out this whole “dressing warmly” thing.  

While it’s pretty cold, it’s not really the weather that has me wondering if I am ready for the season, it’s my own head and heart that are my concern.  

Am I truly ready for Christmas?  

What does that look like and what does that mean for me?  

For some reason those are the questions I am asking myself this morning, because I do want to be ready for Christmas!  So here we go!  

The story of Jesus birth is found in the gospels of Matthew and Luke.  The two authors split up the narrative, so you end up putting it together like puzzle pieces.   I was reading in Luke, and struck by the priest Zechariah.  We know a good amount about him, priestly lineage, married, old, obedient and not only he, but his wife was righteous in God’s eyes.   We also know that they had no children. So while there was much good in both of their lives, there was also pain and disappointment.  In this part of the story, I also found a clue to being ready for Christmas. 

Here was this man who was a priest, taught about God from his youth, so he would be ready for the job he would one day fulfill.   He is serving God in the temple, and then is chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord.  There he burned incense with just a curtain separating him from the dwelling place of God on earth.  It was then that all heaven breaks loose!  (Well I couldn’t say it the other way!). He is met by an angel, but it’s not just any angel, but Gabriel himself.  After Gabriel relays the news of the impending pregnancy of his wife and the role that child would play, Zechariah questions, “How can I be sure this will happen?  I am an old man now, and my wife is also well along in years.”  This is when I imagine that Gabriel stands to his full height and in his indignation states, “I am Gabriel! I stand in the very presence of God.” Luke 1:19. Like dude, who do you think I am?  While I may leave you awestruck, I am just a messenger for the God of the universe.  You are in the place where God dwells with man and you are questioning if what I say is true?  What kind of falsehood could even be spoken in this most holy place?  I imagine that thoughts like those may have rushed through Gabriels mind before he spoke.   

It seems to me that Zecharaiah was positioned to hear from God.  He was spiritually right and even physically in the Lord’s house.  The man was chosen by lot, or God Himself, to enter the dwelling place of God on earth.  There is no better position to be in than close to the Lord, set up to hear the whisper of His voice.  So…. How do I position myself to hear from God?  

Seeking to be righteous.  This is nothing holier than thou…..none of us are perfect and never will be.  Being righteous is about being right with God.  That is the work that Jesus did on the cross giving us that pathway to righteousness.  I seek to be righteous by reflection, confession and repentance.  

To not fear.  Did you know there are 366 verses in the Bible where people are told not to fear?  As I read through the story of Jesus birth, this story is filled with the reminder “do not fear.”   I was watching Grantchester last night, and one of the characters said, “Fear makes you feel that there is no way out.”  That trapped feeling can disrupt how I respond to God and others.  Fear brings distortion, but clarity comes with the absence of fear. 

To be humble.  The humility of those who trusted God to work out their lives abounds in this story.  For me this year, most noticeably is Elizabeth.  She is in the lineage of Aaron, the priestly line of Israel, married to Zechariah who is also a descendant of Aaron.  Here is a woman who should be looked up to and admired, but there is a problem.  We read by her own words, that she is disgraced. “He has taken away my disgrace of having no children” Luke 1:25b. Yet, she was “Righteous in God’s eyes, careful to obey all of the Lord’s commandments and regulations.” Luke 1:6.  That takes humility!  Up to this time in her life she has lived with a cloud over her head.  You know how people talk, and I can just imagine what was said behind her back.  And I am sure she would’ve imagined too.  Yet she did as she was called to do, live blamelessly before her God.  

I will admit, it’s been a couple of days writing down my thoughts, and I’ve already had a run in with one of my points.  And I lost.  That was one day though, and I thank God for new mornings that come with the opportunity to start all over again.  To position myself in a way so that I will be ready for Christmas!