What if… this Christmas Day you woke up dead?
W/c Monday 16th December 2024
Acts 1:11
In my job I have the privilege of talking to all kinds of people about things of faith all the time. At this time of year, the conversation often turns to what is and is not acceptable for Christians during Advent. Things like decorating your house for Christmas or singing/listening to Christmas songs. It strikes me that there are neither prohibitions nor instructions around these kinds of things in all of scripture or church tradition, so it would seem we are free to choose.
Whatever is the best way to prepare our hearts individually for Christmas is what each of us must choose. Advent, of course, is the season when we are focussed on two things: celebrating the God of the universe shrinking Himself down to the size of a human embryo and being born in the filth and straw of a Bethlehem stable to live and die for each one of us. As if this wasn’t enough reason to celebrate by itself, we also remember the fact that this same Jesus will come again to judge each one of us. The 2nd coming of Christ is an integral part of Advent too. We are looking to the past and the future at the same time.
It struck me recently that if we knew we were going to die on Christmas Day, our Advent preparations might look a bit different this year. There is nothing like a reminder of our own mortality to sharpen our focus and help us realise what matters and what doesn’t. If December 25th 2024 really was to be the day you woke up dead, as it were, I submit that your top priority and mine would be our relationships, especially the restoration of broken ones. Even more than that, as we stood on the brink of eternity, ensuring our relationship with Jesus was right would become our number one urgent priority above everything else. All of a sudden, getting worked up about when to decorate our homes and what songs to listen or not listen to seems irrelevant by comparison.
So may this Advent season be one when you prepare your heart properly to meet Jesus face to face. May I take this opportunity to sincerely wish you a joyful and peaceful Christmas.
“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
Acts 1:11