The clock ticked louder than I had ever heard before. tick. TICK. TICK. I asked my wife, “Did you turn up the volume on the clock?” I got a very funny look in reply. I stood up and paced the floor. Five steps one way; five steps back. I kept this up until I noticed my spouse’s eyes squinting at me in annoyance.
Finally, with a loving sigh my wife said, “Don’t worry. He’ll be here. Everything is set and we’re as prepared as we can be. The house is clean, there’s plenty of food in the fridge and clean sheets on the bed. The only thing left to do is to prepare yourself. It’ll be fine.”
“I know,” I said with a lump in my throat. “It’s just that I love him so and we’ve waited so long for him to come back home.”
The word Advent means “coming” or “arrival.” The focus of the entire season is preparation to celebrate the birth of Jesus the Christ in his First Advent, and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his Second Advent.
In Isaiah 40:3 it says
A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
In that spirit we prepare our ourselves to receive our Lord. We take our time to prepare ourselves for Christ because although the birth of Jesus took place almost 2,000 years ago, Advent is far more than simply marking an old historical event. It is celebrating a truth about God, the revelation of God in Christ whereby all of creation might be reconciled to God.
Click here to listen to the message Advent Preparation
Pastor Clayton Wilfer 