Season of Preparation: Day One God's Love

The Season of Preparation." I like the sound of that.

But what exactly am I preparing for? The decorations, the gatherings of friends and family, the gifts, the food? None of these are bad things, unless they become the enemy's distractions for making us miss the most important thing.

Do I grasp the magnitude of what has happened and what is to come? Have I truly let the awe and wonder of it saturate my every thought?

That an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-sufficient Creator has brought me into existence for the sole purpose of knowing Him, serving Him, and worshiping Him humbles me. Why would He do that?

But it as if I've fallen in the mud of a pigpen and all I can do is bring my filth to the door of His throne room. Believing myself unable to enter into His holy, glorious, unfathomable perfection, I stand outside His presence, resigning myself to knowing Him only from afar.

It seems as though I hover in the shadows, neither fully in the dark nor fully in the light.

But my heart and soul thirst for more. And it is the Light of the World that draws me closer.

I want to kneel before His throne. I want to sit at the feet of Jesus. And I want to stand fearless in the face of evil. 

My filthy rags make me a joke to the enemy and abhorrent to God. 

But there's a plan . . .  a way to overcome. A plan that has always been.

God isn't preparing my rescue.  He has always known I'd need a Rescuer, a Mighty Savior.

And in an unexpected twist, He sent my Redeemer as a helpless baby. A tiny infant in which lived the fulfillment of all God's promises, my redemption, and the power that has defeated the darkness, overcoming the world.

So how do I prepare to honor and celebrate a gift like that? Can I even begin to prepare for something so undeserved and yet so fiercely loving?

I will begin by making Him first in all my thoughts of Christmas (indeed, in all my thoughts forever).

I will seek to know Him better through devotion to His word. I will obey and serve Him without hesitation. And I will do more than worship Him. Like a single note in an unending song of praise, I will live my life to glorify Him. 

*If you'd like to listen to the music I have chosen to inspire my worship during this season, click here for access to my Spotify playlist.

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