Get Ready!

Some dear friends of ours are expecting.  They're expecting their first puppy!  This pup will be the first "baby" for these friends.  One of these friends has been hoping and praying for this gift, while the other was initially more hesitant but has now come to fully embrace the idea.  Their joy is palpable.  We've seen pictures of the family, heard stories about the naming, learned about house preparation.  And what we see in their faces is pure, delightful JOY.

A new world is about to open to them.  And for those of us who have walked this road ahead of them we know puppy-life is so very sweet...and so very, well..."puppilicious".  It's a world filled with exuberance, excitement, confusion, difficulties, crying (only from the pup) but forever love.  The shoes you love...gone.  Grandmother's hand-made quilt...in tatters.  Newly planted flowers...goodbye.
And yes, we'd all have a puppy again and again.  For there is nothing quite like that new, precious pup.  He forever changes your life.  Our friends are preparing to receive this new love.

It's time for us to prepare too.  For we are approaching a new love ourselves.  A birth that often gets lost in the preparation.  In these next few weeks, we will be preparing many things for many people in our lives.  My question is, are we preparing ourselves? Will we give ourselves this gift of preparation?  Just like my puppy-minded friends, we too, can excitedly be mindful of the gift that lies ahead.

Our Gift will be a gift of great value.  It will be a gift that we hardly understand or fully comprehend.  It will be a gift for this December and a gift of forever.  It will be a life-changing gift.
The worries in my life...He will resolve.
The pain of my past...He will heal.
The questions of tomorrow...He will lead.
The joys in my life...He will expand and renew.
The people I grieve over...He comes as a gift for them too.

How is it that our God is here today, yet coming tomorrow, and furthermore, coming in the future?  These are traits to be celebrated and anticipated and prepared to receive.  Mary prepared for His birth. John the Baptist, cried out, 'Prepare ye the way of the Lord'.  Luke 3:4 encourages us,

"As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,

‘Prepare the way for the Lord,

    make straight paths for him.. "

How do we prepare the way for the Lord?  How do we make the paths of our heart straight for him?
Let's be aware.
Let's be thoughtful in anticipation.
Let's be exuberant about the gift.
Let's rejoice in the change He brings, the wildly exciting experience and the joy of a Savior.
Let's look forward to our lives forever changing.