What if Christmas didn’t happen this year? Or maybe it will be next year, but one of these Christmas’s will be our last one.
Think of it, what if we spent all of our time planning and preparing for Christmas, making cookies, shopping, wrapping gifts, this and that, you know all that stuff we do and then, right before Christmas came, just days before —Jesus came?
Revelation 16:15 (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) ESV
Would we be ready? Would we have had prepared our hearts for His return, would we be on His list to gather up before the __________ (what no one likes to talk about)?
2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
Where would all of our preparations for Christmas on the earth go? They just wouldn’t be important anymore. All that for nothing. Reality would hit hard in that moment, we’re only here temporarily and it was our time to prepare for eternity, but instead we prepared for a fairly tale.
I never thought of Jesus coming at Christmas time until I heard something yesterday and that ignited a thought, wouldn’t that be exciting if Jesus came at Christmas? It went right a long with something God said to me a few days ago about His return.
It would be exciting for some of us if Jesus came, oh so exciting! But for some not so good. For those who celebrate Christmas for the wrong reasons and won’t acknowledge God it won’t be a good thing at all. For those who just don’t know any better, still very sad that they didn’t know.
I don’t know for sure how God will do things, but His Word gives us a good idea and plenty of warnings, thus we have no excuse not to prepare!
What if it were next year at Christmas time? We would still have time to help prepare hearts for Jesus’ return. So those who don’t know can know, so those who won’t acknowledge Him will reconsider.
What can you do to help prepare the way of the Lord? Or are you thinking you have lots of time and He is not coming for a long while. You don’t know that, and you don’t want to assume that because that will keep you from preparing to be ready. I do know if you start asking Him what you can do for Him (to help prepare for His coming); you will have a better sense of things to come. If you are sincere in serving Him and being about His business He will confide in you.
1 Thessalonians 5:4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. ESV
Until a day ago which is why I am writing about this now, I never considered Jesus coming at Christmas time, but what better time? I am not proclaiming I know anything, but it seems like a good thing to think about. He came once at Christmas, so maybe Christmas should at least be the time we reminisce about Him coming again, and commit to being apart of what the Father is doing to prepare hearts for His return.
Can you pray this prayer with me today? Father thank You so much for sending Jesus. Thank You so much for Your Love, for Your compassion for us. Jesus thank You for all You did for us while You were here and all the things You are still doing. Please help us Lord to prepare for Your coming, to put more time and energy into the importance of life, what is important to You— rather than the things we get so wrapped up in on the earth.
You said the distractions we have, are designed by the enemy to steal You from us. So Lord please help us to not be ignorant of his ploys but to be focused on You and Your will. You said we can’t do anything without You, so we are asking for Your help to do Your will. Use us to be a part of Your quest, what You are doing to show who You are so Your people can make a clear choice who they will serve, and be ready when You get here.