Much to Prepare For

Today marks the beginning of Advent, a season of preparation and waiting for the birth of Christ. I must confess that I am best at the preparation part of the Advent equation. I love getting things ready for celebrations in order to make people smile.

I love preparing for things. I love checking things off my life when they are done. I have birthday presents bought months in advance and Christmas gifts wrapped by the end of November. I suppose that this strength is good because this year I have much to prepare for.

I am preparing for the day when my marriage begins. For me, that does not simply mean the one day that I get to wear a white dress, but for all the days that stretch out endlessly after that. For the good days and the bad, the possibility of children and the reality of loss. The reality of a new home is one that is so thrilling and yet something that is so difficult to prepare for because I don't know how it is all going to work out.

Preparing for a new life is something that I am looking forward to for so many reasons. The spirituality of the prairies is something amazing that lays you bare to the power of God in nature. It is a wonderful place to experience God and to wait.

The reality of Advent is that we are trying to prepare for something that we have been waiting for for two thousand years. Every year we celebrate the birth of Christ with the anticipation of when he will come again. It is a season of waiting, as the first apostles waited with the anticipation that they would see Christ again before the end of their earthly lives. We are still waiting now to see the glory of Christ on earth and while we wait, we can prepare. That means different things for every person. My preparation means trying to make the world a place that is welcoming. There is very little about the world right now that is worthy of a welcome. There are wars, famine, hatred and fear. We should make a world that is welcoming for the one for whom we wait. That is something to prepare for and we have a lot of work to do.