This is the question, it seems, that we hear most often this time of year, and it has many meanings and intents. When I was a kid back in the ‘60s, it meant: Are you excited for the presents you’ll be getting? I was always ready for that. (see photo below, circa 1975!)
Now, it mostly seems to mean: Have you done all your shopping, wrapped all the presents, sent your Christmas cards and planned your menus for the family gathering? Have you made your list and checked it twice, or maybe three times? We may be exhausted by the time Christmas day dawns, but we’ll be ready. But are we really?
All of this can leave us feeling a bit like Martha in the story in Luke’s gospel (Luke 10:38-42). Like Martha, we are running around like crazy getting ready for the coming of Jesus, making sure everything is just right, when all the time Jesus just wants us to sit with him and listen, as Martha’s sister, Mary, is doing. “Martha, Martha,” Jesus says, “you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”
I love Christmas morning around the tree with the kids, their spouses, and the grandkids. I don’t want to lose that for a second. I know that the looks on their faces when they open their gifts only happen with my wife’s carefully prepared shopping lists and our treks together out to malls and stores. We’re going to grocery shop today so that we’ll be ready for breakfast on Christmas eve when they all arrive, eyes bright and shiny and full of expectation. So, yes, we’ll be ready for THAT Christmas.
But Sue and I are also trying hard to make time for quiet, for prayer, for reflection on what this ancient story means. We’ve made our annual advent retreat. We know we need to find some time each day to sit at the feet of Jesus and just listen, watch, and wait with urgent expectation for the next line of the story, the next stage of our lives, the next coming of Christ. And that’s the point, isn’t it? Jesus wasn’t born just once, in a stable in Bethlehem some 2,000 years. He is born again and anew in us each Christmas, each day, each moment of our lives, if we just sit still and wait.
So sometime between now and Christmas, give yourself the gift of time with Jesus. Sit in silence with Luke’s short Nativity narrative — the whole thing is just the first 20 verses of Luke’s second chapter. Put on some of your favorite carols or pick up a book of advent and Christmas meditations. Give yourself permission to do nothing for an hour or so. Choose the better part.
Note: If you click through to my website, you’ll see I’ve posted three Christmas songs I created with my collaborators and friends John Caravelli and Phil Cooper over the past few years. Hit play and enjoy.
Around the Fire:
After this Night:
Christmas to Me:
