Finally got it this Christmas

The tree is decorated. The Christmas cards are sent. The presents are purchased, wrapped, and hidden until Christmas Eve. The annual baking spree is done and distributed. The holiday music is on (the good Classical stuff, not the Burl Ives and Bing Crosby stuff). The nativity set is displayed on the bookshelf. The turkey is actually already cooked and in the freezer to make dinner easier. (Full confession, sometimes we just have frozen leftovers from Thanksgiving.) Family get-together time has been coordinated. Church choir is primed and ready. Grandkids' festive recitals have been attended. Snow shovel and bags of de-icer are poised by the door. 

Nothing left to do but enjoy a peaceful week running up to Christmas. Reading by the glowing tree. Picking out carols on the piano. Sneaking a carton of egg nog into the shopping cart while the diet police are distracted. (Well, and wrapping up things at work in preparation for a week off after Christmas.) Just staying home and crocheting by the fireplace. Lovely!

Every year I vow to get things done ahead of time so that there's no last-minute panicking, and so that I can avoid the inevitable frenzy of traffic and line-ups at stores. Some years I'm good at it, and other years I'm not. Sometimes it involves last-minute gift-finding. Sometimes I fall back on "That'll do" and abandon grander plans. Whatever preparations I've made for this important season, they're enough. At some point, you sit back and just be in the moment.

I'm hoping I have the same attitude when it comes to Jesus's Second Coming. I can picture it now. I'm standing there with my incomplete Ministering assignment and my good intentions puddled around my feet, my heart not quite loving, my spirit not quite humble. A list of To Do's still in my head. And there's Jesus on CNN, gleefully announcing "Ready or not, here I come!"

I hope I will be able on that day to forget my To Do list, quiet my anxieties, let go of everything I'm clutching in my fists, and turn to him with open hands and heart.

I hope I can do that now.