Preparation May Be The Best Time

by Dr. Everett Flanigan
Southeastern Synod Director for Evangelical Mission/
Assistant to the Bishop

Preparing for an activity--such as a celebration, a new adventure, a chore or a transition--consumes a considerable amount of energy, time and of course, in our culture, resources.

Consider a simple chore such as painting a room: I usually try removing all the room’s contents--the furniture and curtains; if there is carpet, it is covered, if not removed. Wall dressings such as pictures, light fixtures and frames are removed or taped or covered, as well. Generally it takes about as much time to prepare the room for the painting as it does to actually paint the room.

In our times people both young and old, spend many years in school preparing for the future or a future activity, including acquiring learning tools, gaining facility with and perfecting these tools; and developing thought and action patterns to support sound judgment for unknown or unseen situations. As a child, preparing for Christmas involved good times. There were pies, cakes and cookies being baked; gifts being hidden in the house. Important events in our lives generally require some type of preparation.

Advent is a time of preparing; preparing for the celebration of the coming of the Promised One. I admit that during this time of preparation, even with the preparation of the house, putting up the tree, putting lights on the hedges outside, going to the mall or ordering gifts on the internet, the concerts, and pageants, I, like many others, scarcely give thought to events surrounding the birth of Jesus.

Unlike the preparations we undertake today, the birth of the Promised One did not come without considerable price. This price was not measured in money, but rather the cost was more in changed lives; Mary and Joseph would experience altered lives; people would act deceptively in order to protect the newly born Promised One and themselves. In order to keep the baby alive, His parents would have to flee to Egypt and then return home. As they prepared for the Child, they also prepared to be homeless; boys under the age of two would have to lose their lives.

We prepare for change, which can be demanding. It may not be the preparation that is so demanding, but rather the intended changes that result for which the preparation is aimed. Does our preparation allow us to see those who are hungry, those who come seeking better lives—the aliens, the strangers, the migrants, the immigrants? Might our preparation might remind us of the homeless; those who have lost cherished homes during these tough economic times, those who lack jobs or those who are imprisoned in disease, with poor spirits, who are locked away? Preparing the way may show us changed view; a new way of seeing. Perhaps we can see for the “first time and again” as in Luke 4, the one who was promised and anointed “to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.”

As we prepare for Christmas, perhaps the best time will be that time when we are able to link preparing for the celebration with what Christianity is all about: loving God, and loving what God loves.