Advent Day 10

It is 11:16 p.m., and I am wondering if I prepared my heart for Christmas today.

As I age, I much more frequently analyze how I use my time, wondering whether or not I used it wisely.  This is the Advent season, when we prepare our hearts for the coming of the Baby Jesus, Who is also to me my Savior.
During Advent, some days get remarkably lopsided.

For instance ...
Yesterday, I worked at the pie shop from 9:00 to 5:00, sitting down once for maybe 2 minutes, skipping lunch, etc. Then, I went home and cooked dinner (swiftly!) and left for my church's monthly women's bible study, at the home of our pastor and his wife.
Then, I went home to find my darling husband had cleaned up the kitchen and stuffed the Christmas cards into their envelopes.
I did not read my Bible, pray much or blog.  I concentrated on "surviving".

This morning, I got up and had a leisurely three hours, recuperating from the harem-scarem of the day before.  Then, I caught up on the past couple of days of Bible reading, wrote in my prayer journal (and prayed, obviously), made cinnamon rolls for a late breakfast and began addressing our approx. 150 Christmas cards.  In the necessary breaks between, I wished the dog a happy 9th birthday, fixed hubby some lunch, tidied up the house a little, wrote a graduation advice piece for a family friend, texted friends, etc.
Around 5:00 we left to go to a church outreach.  Every couple of months, our bible study group of 8 couples does an outreach at a local assisted living facility.  We go and play piano and sing with the residents as they are finishing up dinner.  Usually, we take each of them a little goodie bag.  Tonight, we brought Santa Claus with us, sang Christmas songs, passed out goodie bags and read the Christmas story, as well as a Christmas poem one of our group wrote.  After that, all 6 of us went and grabbed a bite to eat, with our friends.  (Several of our group were either not well or were traveling.)
Arriving home, we celebrated with our son, who had fixed the dog a nice birthday dinner and fed it to him.  Highly entertaining but sad, as our dog is critically ill and does not have any birthdays left.

So, after all that, I realized a few minutes ago I had not written an Advent blog post today and I felt the old, familiar guilt-laden question - - "did you really use your time well to serve your Savior today?"
(I almost never feel like I do, by the way.  Do you?)

What does it mean to "prepare your heart for Christmas, anyway?"
Does it mean to "do Christmasy things"?

The Bible passage in the "read through the Bible chronologically" program I'm following landed me in Philippians today.  Chapter 3, verse 10 sums up what it means to get ready for Christmas, because it means the same thing as getting ready to see Jesus - - whether via physical death, via His Second Coming, via looking with your soul into that ordinary manger.

"My goal is to know Him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings

being conformed to His death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead."

Philippians 3:10 (CSB)

That last phrase is rather puzzling unless you remember that Paul believed Jesus' return was imminent.  However, as he headed toward the end of his life, he began to assume he would not be alive when Jesus returned, but that he would die and experience the resurrection at His coming, instead.  However, I digress.

The key point is that knowing Christ is the goal, not just during the Advent season, but always, in every way, at all times, on all days.  It is the "crux of the matter", a careful choice of words.  Our English word "crux" means "the essence of", or "the heart of" or "the most basic part of", and it comes from the same root as the word "crucifixion".  Both have overtones of the Cross.

Knowing Him comes from studying His ways, reading His Word, praying/conversing with Him during our mundane (and not so mundane) days.  BUT, our knowing of Him is deepened when we also know Him by fellowshipping with Him in suffering, when we die to ourselves daily, when we "crucify our flesh" in spiritual battle with our sinful natures, daily.  In this way, our bodies are "conformed to His death", and our spirits follow suit in obedience to Christ.

When we know Him, we are prepared for anything - - life, death and everything in between (including Christmas).

So, this is not a very inspiring Advent post, I reckon.  It's not warm or fuzzy or cuddly or sexy (if I can use that word in a Christian blog).  It is reflective of real life, though, and perhaps that is real or inspiring enough.

Go re-read Philippians.  What an amazing book!  What a gift God gave us!

Goodnight, and God bless.