Are you Ready for Christmas?

We are getting down to crunch time! 11 days before the big day and if you’re like I can be, you might be slightly overwhelmed or maybe on the verge of panic. Just in my immediate family I have 14 people I plan, shop & wrap for and fill stockings for! Then I have both sets of parents and 3 siblings and cousins and girlfriends, you know how it goes. I know you know!

It seems like everywhere I go this time of year all I hear is, “are you ready for Christmas?” It doesn’t matter where. If I’m at the grocery store, doctor, school, etc. It seems to be the question to ask. I ran across this poem that I thought was really good and might help us gain some perspective.

Ready For Christmas

“Ready for Christmas,” she said with a sigh,

As she gave a last touch to the gifts piled high,

Then wearily sat for a moment and read,

Till soon, very soon, she was nodding her head.

Then quietly spoke a voice in her dream,

“Ready for Christmas? What do you mean?

Ready for Christmas when only last week

You wouldn’t acknowledge your friend on the street.

“Ready for Christmas, while holding a grudge?

Perhaps you had better let God be the judge,

Why, how can the Christ-child come and abide

In the heart that is selfish and filled with pride?

“Ready for Christmas when only today

A beggar lad came and you turned him away

Without even a smile to show that you cared?

The little he asked — it could have been spared.

“Ready for Christmas? You’ve worked, it is true,

But just doing the things that you wanted to do.

Ready for Christmas? Your circle’s too small –

Why, you are not ready for Christmas at all!”

She awoke with a start and a cry of despair,

“There’s so little time and I’ve still to prepare.

O Father, forgive me, I see what You mean,

To be ready means more than a house swept clean.”

Yes, more than the giving of gifts and a tree,

It’s the heart swept clean that He wants to see;

A heart that is free from bitterness, sin –

Ready for Christmas — and ready for HIM.

~ Alice Haneche Mortensen

This year has been very different for me because I took my own advice in my post on Holiday expectations and I’ve spent more time focusing on the author of Christmas. If you’re lacking the “holiday spirit” or in the middle of panic with all you have to do I suggest you STOP and take some time and spend with the author Christmas! I promise you’re outlook on Christmas will change.