Preparation is everything. Many years ago I was part of a minister’s group that liked to do joint events. When it came time for one of the ministers to organise an event my colleagues and I kept pressing him for information about what we needed to do and what we needed to prepare. He kept saying that we didn’t need to do anything.
As we got closer to the event, I for one, got more and more nervous. I am generally speaking not an off the cuff kind of guy. I like to prepare, I like to write things out, I like to be ready. When we arrived at the event it turned out that the minister preparing things had grand plans about how things would go, but he wanted it to be spontaneous. What he had not realised is that for something to go really well and appear spontaneous it has to be prepared meticulously. If anything it needs to involve even greater preparation than regular events.
The birth of Jesus was not spontaneous. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. God had planned for the salvation of humanity from before creation. He sent prophets to prepare the people for the Messiah. He sent John the Baptist to prepare a way in the wilderness, to make the path smooth and straight.
If you want to really enjoy Christmas this year, you need to prepare as well. You need to prepare your heart and mind through prayer and reading the scriptures, for only then will you be able to joyfully and spontaneously enjoy the birth of the Christ-child like never before.