Only six more days until Christmas!  I'm sure every home in America is getting ready.  People are decorating their homes, attending holiday parties, planning holiday travel or dreaming up a last minute gift for that special someone.  Shoppers are already finding stores running out of merchandise.  Clerks are growing weary of shoppers, and everyone is growing tired of the never-ending, cheesy Christmas music piped into all the stores.

          Houses are decorated inside and out with lights, trees, nativity scenes, tinsel and mistletoe.  A fine Christmas dinner is being planned by Mrs. American Woman, and Mr. American Man is planning a Christmas afternoon of football or a nap.  Children hope they will get the gifts they want and have already tried to find out what's in their presents, that is, if they can just find where Mom has hidden them.  Holiday cookies and candy are being baked, and belts are already loosened a notch or two.  Cards are going in the mail and boxes arrive at homes every day around the neighborhood.  This is a great time to be alive.

          This is a great time of year for churches, too.  People come to worship who haven't been seen since Easter, and the offerings are much larger.  Excited children come to Christmas program practice, choirs practice special songs, and church office parties abound.

          At this time of year, people seem to get along better.  We greet people we don't normally talk to, and the miracle salve of Christmas heals old wounds, at least for a few weeks.  People open their hearts to those less fortunate with boxes of clothing and toys for the needy.  All in all, it looks as if we are getting ready for Christmas once again.

          I had a dream one night.  In my dream I met a man from another place, a man who didn't know about the American Christmas.  In my dream he saw the activity in churches, and marvelled at how well they were doing.  The man in my dream thought Jesus must have had a fantastic message to stir a billion people to do such wonderful things.

          It was hard telling him it isn't always this way.  I explained what would happen after Christmas, how the churches would be more empty and how many on the streets don't even know that Jesus is the reason for the season.  I told him about those who only party and drive around madly and buy things they can't afford for people who don't appreciate them anyway.  And the man in my dream from another place hung his head sadly and went away.

          John the Baptist was a man from another place.  He was the "...voice of one calling:  'In the desert prepare the way for the LORD;  make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God."  John would have been shocked if he saw how we get ready for the Lord's birthday.  He may not think all our preparations are bad, but he'd wonder what most of it has to do with Christ's coming.

          Our preparing the way of the Lord has too little repentance and too much food.  The only highway made straight is the one between here and the store -- and it's filled with cars!  Holiday music is everywhere - even in the desert.  He who ate locusts and wild honey could probably buy honey-baked locusts at a specialty shop in Park Meadows.

          John was born to aged parents and raised by the Essenes who taught him to be satisfied with little or no possessions.  He would struggle to understand how our celebrating the birth of Christ could have gotten so extravagant, so expensive, and so exhausting.

          Christmas is only about the birth of a baby.  Just two Gospels - Luke and Matthew - even mention it happened, which shows God never intended us to get so hung up on it.  Our Christmas preparations are fine, so long as we don't lose sight of the purpose of His coming.  It's so easy to keep Jesus a cute little baby!  It's so hard to remember that He came to die for our sins.

          Our modern culture has made Christmas to be just like a crass nativity set I saw.  It had all the shepherds, all the angels and animals, Mary, Joseph and Wise Men -- everything but the truth, because in the manger was a tiny baby Santa Claus.  The meaning got lost - the real baby got thrown out with the bathwater!

          Though our preparations are excessive, no one wants to give them up.  There are loud, rakish voices calling for abolition of all public references to religion, yet none of them call for the abolition of Christmas.  They know better.  If the Freedom from Religion people were to find a way to end Christmas, our economy would collapse.

          So how should we get ready for Christmas?  Let me offer a novel idea.  Get your heart ready first.  When your heart is ready, you will be ready, and each day will have new meaning.  Isaak Walton, British author, once wrote, "Christ has two dwellings - one in heaven, and the other in a meek and thankful heart."  And if Christ lives with us, we should make His earthly dwelling pleasant and good.  The world has enough critics and cranks.  We need no more sour voices in the church!  Be an island of joy in the sea of cynics.  Practice random acts of kindness and senseless deeds of love.  Get your heart ready for Christmas by doing the things God approves of.

          For example:  Forgive someone who has offended you, cancel an old debt, go a whole day saying only positive things, thank a store clerk, give a gift to someone in need who doesn't know you, make a phone call to someone you should talk with, or write a personal note in a card instead of mailing a Christmas form letter.

          Give someone a hug, pray for someone you don't like, go a whole day without spending money on yourself, tell your kids you love them no matter what, and compliment a fellow worker.  These are only some of the ways to get your heart ready for Christmas.

          Getting ready for Christmas can be both fun and easy.  It just takes a decision to do it, and it will bring you more joy than you can imagine.  Here's more:  write a check to charity, give flowers to an unsuspecting person, be kind to a phone solicitor, go carolling around your neighborhood, send a package to someone in the military, visit a nursing home, invite a lonely or single person to your home, call someone who's lost a loved one this past year.

          Send an E-mail to a missionary, allow other cars to get ahead of you on the road, give an extra large tip to a restaurant server, be kind and helpful to your parents all day, be patient with your pastor, thank a teacher, help set the table or wash the dishes, thank your Mom for the nice meal she's just made you, thank a postal employee for their hard work, pick up trash off the street, wave at a policeman, and be kind to your office copier repairman.

          These acts may sound inconsequential, but they aren't.  They're all part of getting your heart ready for Christmas, and all will have a wonderful effect on people around you.  The kind things we do will have a lasting effect.  Conversely, the angry, hostile or cranky things we say, affect others far more negatively than we think.  Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before people that they will see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."  This is true at Christmas or any time.

          You and I may not be able to change the whole world, but we can change our corner of it.  We may not be able to preach repentance in the wilderness like John, but we can bring hope into the desert of someone's life with a kind word or a gentle touch.  The world, as decorated as it appears, is inhabited by millions of lonely people, wandering in their desert of hopelessness, living in their wilderness of bad decisions and broken hearts.  Get ready for Christmas by healing some hearts, mending some fences, and bringing joy to some gloomy people.

          We can best do this by sharing the hope we have in Jesus Christ.  In Matthew 11:5, Jesus said He came... "to make the blind to see, the lame to walk, those who have leprosy to be cured, the deaf to hear, the dead to be raised, and the good news to be preached to the poor."  Today He still gives the blind their sight, He still cures the lepers, the lame and the deaf, He still raises the dead, and He still preaches Good News to everyone.  But He does it through us.  Are you getting your heart ready for His coming by helping others?

          Prepare for Christmas by imitating Christ.  Love someone unconditionally, bind up a broken relationship, give the struggling person a hand, really listen to people in your conversations, and in any way you can, share the Good News of Jesus Christ, the babe of Bethlehem.  Let's pray: Dear Lord, help us prepare our hearts this Christmas by being a blessing to others.  Let our lights shine so others can see Jesus in us.  Amid all the noise, help us hear Him calling us to follow.  Amen.

Copyright © 1999 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.