Preparing the food, planning menus, freezing ahead, making the cakes and pudding, bracing ourselves for that last shop in all its madness. Preparing the presents, shopping online and in stores searching for the right gift and then the right wrapping. Preparing the house for family, perhaps for guests, decorating trees, sorting out guest rooms. Preparing ourselves, on the outside anyway, something new to wear, or a trip to the hairdresser. It seems to gather its own momentum, some of it fun, much of it stressful.

Once again, however, I find myself in danger of forgetting the most important preparation of all, making room in my busyness for the main Christmas guest … the arrival of God’s son in human form to live amongst us.

That preparation takes a different form, it is enriching and not tiring, it is stillness and not busyness, it involves making time to read the familiar and beautiful words of advent, making time to clear the clutter in my head so that I can hear what God is telling me, making time to go to church and hearing, in the stillness of that place, what really happened in Bethlehem all these years ago and what it might mean to me now.

This is not a preparation that this world advertises, we don’t see this Christmas countdown in our magazines. But I know that if I put this at the heart of my preparation, it will bring a joy and a peace that lasts well beyond Christmas Day.

“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests” Luke 2:14

Elsie Bouffler (http://blog.mydailythought.co.uk)