The Twenty-Four Days of Christmas Day One

Advent!

 

Here we are in December again.  Another opportunity to celebrate Advent, to remember the first coming of our Saviour and to look forward to the certainty of His return.

If you have been following the blog very long you know I love the tradition of celebrating each day of December with something special to prepare our home and our hearts for the coming of Christmas.  I am sitting over a cup of coffee right now looking at a list of ideas and ways to celebrate the next twenty-four days.  The list is important; it is very easy for me to get caught up in the details and the doing.  Yet the details and the doing can become a distraction from the focus of the season.  So the top of my list has this:

Focus: Prophecy > Fulfillment > Return

This is my goal for the month.   My desire is that every activity, event, indeed every moment, encourage me to remember what I am celebrating and what I am anticipating.  When I am shopping for gifts, may I focus on the gift that I have received through Jesus.  When I am entertaining people in my home, may my home be a welcoming haven of God's grace and hope.  When I listen to music, may it draw my heart closer to heaven.  When I read my traditional Christmas books and watch our favorite Christmas movies, when I write, when I bake, when I decorate my home, may all this glorify God and draw my heart closer to Him.  

I assure you I will get caught up in the giddiness of the season.  We will have our times of silliness.  We will watch a movie that has little to do with Christmas.  I will get flustered and panicked and tired and probably irritable as the month goes along.  I will be sad that we have no little ones in our home.  At least once this month I will probably succumb to the cleaning frenzy that drives Mr. Marvelous nuts.  He will get annoyed with me for "over-doing", and I will get irked that he isn't jumping into the chaos with me.   That's just how we are.  

Still my prayer each morning, through the day, and every night as I drift off to sleep, will be that God enable me to maintain focus.  That He will be honored in our home.  That my heart will be prepared for His return.  And that the glory will be His alone.

May the peace of Jesus fill your hearts and homes this month,

as you wait with me for His glorious return.