While checking my email this morning I saw that I received one filled with links gearing up toward Advent.  Now, most of you know all about the Advent season if for no other reason than you've seen it have a small part in the worship services at New Hope with the wreath and purple & pink candles.  We light one each week beginning the last Sunday of November to help prepare our hearts for the celebration of coming of the Christ-child.  It's a great little tool to remind us of the true reason we celebrate Christmas.  And, I need tools like this.  I don't think any of us intentionally put Christ on the back burner of the season, but I do think that for most of us the details of the celebration get in the way.  We "deck the halls" and find we're so concerned about having the colors coordinate or getting Grandmother's Christmas china down that the Baby's cry from the manger is silenced.

 

I was challenged last night by a group of girls.  The New Hope Girls Worship Team is right smack dab in the middle of preparing for our Christmas Music Service.  They've worked long and hard, with more practices to come.  Last night one of the kids asked what they should wear.  I told them to just dress "Christmasy" and that would be fine.  One child asked if they could wear Santa hats.  I told her "no" and then proceeded to explain that while the Wilson family had Santa visit our home each year, he was not what Christmas was all about.  I wanted them to know in their heart of hearts that Jesus was the real reason to celebrate.  I should have said the only real reason. 

 

For in the midst of that conversation, Christ began working in my heart....again.  He does that often, and I'm thankful for it.  Sometimes we need the discipline to set us back on the right path - the path that is led by the One Who knows the way.  It's easy to get caught up in prettily wrapped gifts to the point of it becoming the forefront of our thoughts.  But the girl who asked about the Santa hats gave Christ the opportunity to remind me that in the preparation of music that celebrates His birth I had gotten off track.  It had become about the music and not about the Savior.

 

There's nothing wrong with the warm fuzzies of a child dressed in Biblical garb and sweet harmonies of voices singing.  But, there's something very wrong when the prep work takes precedence over the message.  It's a tough battle.  We want excellence...no, actually we want the best that we can offer to our King because sometimes off-key voices of little ones might not seem "excellent" to some :o).  What Christ was telling me simply and lovingly was, "Remember Me.  Don't forget to let the words of these songs take you further in your walk with Me."

 

I'm guilty.  I've asked forgiveness and He's once again assured me of His love.  He's taken my shame and turned it to joy as I focus on the Christ instead of the Music Service.  We'll still practice.  We'll still have the child dressed as a little shepherdess and who knows?  Maybe there will be a manger with a baby doll in it to remind us.  But, it won't be about the Music Service.  It will be about the Child.

 

 

For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. 

And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 

Isaiah 9:6