I was sitting Monday night in a room full of people I love. A lull in the conversation brought the soft Christmas carols playing in the background to my ears.
And the words caught my mind and heart in a new way…
Let every heart, prepare Him room
And my heart breathed deep in attention.
Prepare Him room
In the midst of the craziness…
In the midst of the busy…
In the midst of the rushing…
In the midst of the gifts and the cards and the wrapping paper and the caroling and the parties and the bustle…
In the midst of it all, prepare Him room.
Because the miracle of Christmas is God with us, but how can He be with us if we won’t make room for Him?
He won’t push in.
He won’t break down doors.
He won’t force Himself into our hearts or schedules.
We have to make room for Him.
As husband and wife we’re reading a daily advent devotional plan together. I think we’ve been trying to catch up since day five. And there’ve been too many days were I’ve spent more time stressing about my todo list than enjoying the Gift of the season.
There’s all sorts of excuses and it’s easy to feel like a failure when you’re failing more days than you’re succeeding. But the miracle of Christmas is a miracle of grace. And grace doesn’t end when you fail. And Grace never fails.
So I’m breathing deep of grace when I fail over and over to prepare Him room and allowing each moment to be a new start, a fresh grace.
And that’s the key to a successful Christmas season I think: breathing in grace and loosing track of the do-overs and the restarts, because it doesn’t matter how many times you fail, it simply matters what you’re doing right now.
Let’s prepare Him room in our hearts and our schedules this season and let’s not be discouraged when it feels like fighting a loosing battle. It doesn’t matter how many times you fail, it matters what you are doing right now.
Be blessed
<3