Taking Time To Get Ready

I grew up on the north side of La Crosse, two blocks from what came to be called the Caledonia Street Shopping Center. It was actually the business district from a time when North La Crosse had been a separate city. There was a hardware store and a pharmacy, a movie theater and a “five and dime.”
Everything you needed was right there, nestled into two blocks on Caledonia Street.

Every year, in early November, someone would put up a little red house in an empty lot next to the Klinkner & Jensen’s shoe store. This was Santa’s house and all of us knew that when the little red house appeared that Christmas was coming.

Santa’s house was important because Christmas was important and Christmas was important because of all of the stuff that came along with it. It wasn’t just presents (although that was a big part of it) because there were decorations and celebrations and food that were part of Christmas that we never saw during the rest of the year. There was a lot to get excited about.

Advent (the four Sundays prior to Christmas) is a time that the church has set aside to help us prepare for Jesus’ coming into the world. Like Santa’s house it is supposed to remind us that something wonderful is soon to arrive.

If you’re like me, you will still get a bit excited as you put up the decorations, plan for the celebrations and prepare those special foods that are part of this season. But it seems to me that this is the reason we need a time like Advent in our lives. If we aren’t careful we will get so caught up in these seasonal memories that we won’t have any time or room for Jesus. How ironic is that?

So, I offer this reflection early (even before we’ve gotten to Thanksgiving) because I have a feeling that we could all use an extra bit of time to prepare our hearts and lives for what should be one of the most precious moments in our year.

We will still plan to light the Advent candles (in Church and hopefully as families) and set out our nativity sets (and remember all of the players in this beautiful story) and remind ourselves again that there is something, even more wonderful, coming that we can be excited about. At Christmas God became a human being and loved us like we’ve never been loved before.

For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior which is Christ the Lord. +Luke 2:11

When a celebration is as important to us as Christmas is we want to make sure that we take whatever time is required to get our hearts and our heads in the right place. Let us begin.

A Child In The Best Possible Way

I recently finished up (hopefully) raking and bagging 40 bags of leaves. It was quite a switch for me because the house we moved from had a row of pine trees in the back (read that as no leaves) and one small maple tree in the front yard and most of those leaves blew away before I ever got a chance to pick up a rake. The house we live in now has a nice selection of mature trees, which provide good shade in the summer and good exercise in the Fall. I should have seen it coming.

When I was 10, leaves were all about playing. We would rake up huge piles of leaves just so we could jump in them. Once we got tired of jumping we would spread them out into rows and move the rows around to make the outline of a house (complete with leaf furniture) and then pretend to live there.

When I was a child, the falling leaves were something to celebrate, but today those same leaves have become mostly a nuisance. The leaves haven’t changed. They still smell the same and they still crackle when you step on them. The only thing that has changed is me.

So, I began asking myself, “Is this what it means to get old? Have I become so jaded to the world around me that I no longer have a sense of wonder in my soul; a bit of whimsy in my life?” I’m afraid the answer might be, “yes.”

I tell myself that I’ve just gotten responsible and that this is called “maturity.” I tell myself that this is what is supposed to happen but then I remember that Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” (Luke 18:17) and I wonder about losing touch with the child I once was.

Then, it struck me that part of my Christian journey might be to re-learn something that I once intuitively knew but have lost along the way. The real issue might not have anything to do with being old or having an abundance of leaves. The real issue might be how much I trust Jesus.

I (like so many others) may have simply decided to let the challenges of life dictate my response to life. Without really thinking about it I’m afraid that I have said to God that He can take a break because I've got it handled and then I come to those reflective moments when I realize just how much of a burden that really is. I'm starting to have sympathy for the OT people of Israel.

To jump or not jump is not the question. To trust or not to trust is. I think I want to be a child again, in the best possible way.