Taylorie Bailey, the Michigan Conference’s Co-Lay Leader, challenges us to spend as much time preparing spiritually as checking off our to-do lists.
TAYLORIE BAILEY
Co-Lay Leader, Michigan Conference
The season of Advent is a very special time of the year that sometimes gets lost in the bright lights of the Christmas season. The first day of Advent begins a new year in our liturgical calendar and starts about four weeks before Christmas. The Advent wreath has five candles, representing hope, peace, joy, and love, with one lit each of the four Sundays of Advent. The fifth candle, the Christ Candle, represents purity and is lit on Christmas Eve.
Advent is about reflecting on how we can prepare our hearts and homes for Christ’s birth in the world today. Preparation is the action or process of making ready or being ready for use or consideration. Preparation involves calling upon the Lord, coming to God in relationship, praying, and seeking the Lord with all your heart.
It is a time for faith communities and families to remember through prayers, reflections, special music, and charitable deeds what the true meaning of Jesus’ birth is.
Our faith is not one more item on our to-do list. Our faith forms our to-be and to-do lists.
Throughout the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus teaches people about living and growing in relationship with God. God does the planning, and we do the preparation.
In the parable of the ten virgins, found in Matthew 25, Jesus stresses that being spiritually alive means not just knowing religious information or believing certain doctrines but also practicing what Jesus teaches about love for God and neighbor.
This parable tells us what being prepared is all about. These ten virgins were given the same instructions. However, their preparation and the end results differed based on their choices.
The wise virgins knew that things sometimes do not always go as planned. You must make decisions for plans A, B, C, and so forth. The foolish virgins were more concerned about the right now with plan A. They were not good listeners. Sometimes, as Christians, we are given the same instructions as written in the Bible. However, some only see and hear what they want to.
Prophets have called us to prepare in ages past: “Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God” (Isaiah 40:3, echoed in Mark 1:3).
As we prepare our homes and churches for Christmas, we make lists and check them off as we accomplish the many tasks before us. We hang the greens, decorate, and make ready all the festivities. Let us also spend as much time on our spiritual preparedness.
Will there be room in our homes and churches to welcome Jesus, to welcome the immigrants, the marginalized, and the vulnerable in our midst? Jesus said in Matthew 25:40, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.”
Will you pray with me? Lord Jesus, as we enter the Advent season, let me focus on you as I prepare my heart and mind to be your witness. Let others see you in me as I may be the only Bible some may ever read. Let me make room to welcome my neighbor and the stranger. Give me the hope to know that all will be well, as I trust you for what lies ahead. Amen.
Last Updated on December 10, 2024