Are You Ready For Christmas

Yesterday I went to a local meat and three veggie restaurant for lunch… While I was there I was listening to these 2 ladies talk across the tables… Sometimes when you are eating alone you just cannot help but listen to those around you and their conversations… For me these eaves dropping moments often lead me to a blog and this conversation was no different…

They were having the same conversation many of you are having everyday with your friends, families, coworkers, and maybe even the cashier at Wal-mart…

It started something like this…

You: “You ready for Christmas?”

The other person: “Lord No, I’ve got gifts to buy, gifts to wrap, lights to hang, and casseroles to make…

Etc…etc…etc…

After a while of chit chatting one of the ladies began talking about her decorations… She said that from the outside of the house she looked as ready as ever… The lights were all on the bushes… the icicles were hanging so neatly from the roof… the bows were hanging proudly in each window adorning their silky bows… She said once more… “from the outside, I look ready, but the inside of my house is a mess… “Nobody would ever know what a mess it was to ride by…They would think I was Queen Christmas if they just saw the outside.”

As she said that line again… “the outside is ready, but the inside is a mess” all I could think about is how that is so typical of us… We work so hard to make everyone on the outside think we are so “ready” and cleaned up…yet our insides are filthy rags… I believe Jesus himself said that to the Pharisees…

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.”
Matthew 23:25-26

This Christmas as you prepare and get ready… Take a moment to make sure your “inside” is ready… Like the song says… “Let every heart, prepare Him room.”
Get Ready… 1 week and counting!!!