Sound of Surviving Blog

Just before the December holidays are the busiest time of year, everyone is running around, buying and wrapping last-minute gifts, preparing food, and preparing our homes for guests, family, and friends. But perhaps the most important thing that most of us forget to prepare, is our heart. We know, deep down, that Jesus’ birth is the reason we celebrate Christmas, but our hearts, like the innkeeper’s inn, are often ill-prepared for Christ.

We get so busy making sure everything is just right that we become so wrapped up in the wrapping and ensuring everything looks like a picture-perfect package, as magazines tell us Christmas is supposed to look, that we forget all about the real reason for this season.  The innkeeper on the first Christmas may not have had time to prepare room for Christ, but we do, we can, not just in our homes, but in our hearts.

 It doesn’t have to be going to church on Christmas Eve, but simply taking a few moments away from the chaos and rush of Christmas to praise God for the many blessings surrounding us, including our family and friends, our homes, and the food we have to eat, and so on. But perhaps the greatest blessing of all to thank God for is that very first Christmas gift, born in a stable, on Christmas Day in Bethlehem,  our Immanuel, God with us.