Advent: prepare for the unexpected

Advent is my favorite time of year. When I was growing up, I loved it because I knew what it meant - Christmas was coming! This meant presents. It also meant Christmas cookies, Christmas trees, Christmas carols, and the chance for some Christmas snow. Kids always hope for snow, even the ones who live in California. Just as important were the traditions my mom and I had, and I looked forward to celebrating them just as much as anything else. Yes, Advent meant Christmas was approaching, and I knew exactly what to expect.

Every family has traditions and rituals, things that seem to make Christmas, Christmas. My family is no different. For starters, the Christmas tree goes up the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Each year it's the same routine. First thing to do is assemble the tree! Some people can't imagine Christmas without a real tree... well, for me Christmas isn't Christmas without that big fake tree! It's older than I am. (Talk about getting the most tree for your dollar.) Then come lights, garland, and the same ornaments year after year. Now that I'm grown and live on my own, there's something comforting about going home to visit over Christmas and seeing the same ornaments on the same tree. When life changes it can be hard to find anything stable to hold onto; my family Christmas tree helps keep me grounded.

After the tree is up, we decorate the rest of the house. My favorite decoration is an Advent calendar with a pocket for each day in December leading up to the 25th - and a mouse you would move from pocket to pocket. Growing up, each morning in December I would wake up and run to move the mouse, watching in excitement as it got closer and closer to the big day.

I loved that mouse calendar, but what I really loved were Sunday nights. Each Sunday in Advent my family would gather for a half hour of songs, verses, prayers, and candles. Each Sunday a different song, a different part of the Christmas story, but each year it was the same. To this day, my family still holds our Advent services on Sunday nights (or Mondays, or whenever we can find the time), and they call me on speakerphone so I can still be a part of it all, despite the distance between me and my old Advent wreath.

See? I knew what to expect when Advent rolled around. Come Christmas Eve we would go through the same rituals as the year before, and the same with Christmas Day. Baby Jesus would be born, presents would be opened, TNT would air "A Christmas Story" for 24 hours, and that would be that!

I wonder if we really know what we're getting into each time Advent rolls around. We think we know what's coming, but do we really know what Christmas means?

Christmas is when God came to earth in the form of a little baby boy, and radically changed the course of history forever. And not just history, but the lives of each and every person who existed and would ever exist. (Even if they would never hear of him.) Yeah, my traditions are nice, but are they really preparing me for what happens when God decides to make himself real in the world, in my life?

Jesus came to find the lost, to love the orphan, to feed the hungry, to give a voice to the silenced, to heal the sick, to set us free from whatever it is that grips and suffocates our soul. Are we ready for that? Are we ready to do that?

This Advent, how are you preparing for Jesus' coming? Because he is coming, and he's going to do all of those things. In fact, he's already been here, and he already is doing those things. Are you ready to be a part of it all?