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Five-minute prompt: Prepare

I discovered “Five-Minute Fridays” back when I was doing the 31-days blog challenge. The prompt, just one word, is posted and then I write about that word for five minutes. (I even set a timer!)

Well, it isn’t Friday, but I did think I’d hop in with this. Maybe it will make you think about Advent and preparations.

The word:  PREPARE

I saw this week’s work and immediately thought of Advent, that season that is supposed to be so full of reflection and peace but is more often (at least for me( frantic and stressful. Something I heard in the Daily  Audio Bible readings this week had me thinking about Advent, too. Here we are in the season of preparation, because that’s what Advent is. We prepare for the arrival of the Christ-child, God made flesh. We prepare our homes and hearts as we remember the Baby’s arrival. And then the church calendar has us off and running through Jesus’ life, so that somehow four months or so after we have prepared for the arrival of a little Divine Baby we are back at the foot of a cross, watching that same God-made-flesh crucified. And it is confusing to do this every year.

But we know that the cross isn’t the end, and neither is the time of Jesus’ ascension. He is coming back and we have to prepare for that as well.

So what I was thinking is that this season of preparation, these short four weeks, are really just a reminder of Jesus’ return on a day we don’t know, a reminder to be ready and always preparing.

So the candles, and the trees and carols and presents, they are reminders to prepare ourselves, and the world around us, because a Baby came two thousand years ago in a little town. And a King will return on a day that only He knows.

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