What Do You Want?

It's the time of year when almost everyone in the country is focused on gifts, both giving and receiving. 'Tis the season to be thinking about all the stuff you want, all the goodies to be made, all the treats to buy, etc., etc., etc. We all know how it goes and it seems to go that way whether we want it to or not. Try as we might to keep the main thing the main thing, it can often be very difficult to maintain a steady and focused gaze on the Christ of Christmas.

So, what do you want this year? What about your Christmas will communicate to all that Christ is Christmas?

One of the things I've decided to do is read our church blog which will be posted daily to focus our hearts and minds on the Advent, the season of anticipation and hope. The word itself means "coming" or "arrival."

We know that in the church this refers to the coming, the arrival of the Savior. With great anticipation we prepare and look forward to celebrating His birth and the ways we prepare are as varied and different as our personalities, traditions and culture.

How will you prepare this year? What is the main thing that you want this year as it relates to the one true and only meaning of Christmas? How will we avoid the lure of all the packaging, trappings and dare I say the "sales" of Christmas?

What do you want? What do I want? On the surface, I can't really think of anything right now, but on a deeper level, what instantly comes to mind is 1 Corinthians 2:2-5 where Paul says:

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

In a nutshell then, what I want is wisdom, boldness of speech and more love, by which I may more fully love those whom God loves.

Stephanie