The author Sue Monk Kidd has written about her youth and how she would prepare for Christmas. In early December, she would sit by the wooden nativity set clustered under their Christmas tree and think over the last year of her life. She would think deeply about Christmas and the coming of Jesus.
She also remembers how as a girl she once visiting a monastery. It was a couple of weeks before Christmas. As she passed a monk walking outside, she greeted him with, "Merry Christmas." The monk's response caught her off guard a bit. "May Christ be born in you," he replied.
His words seemed strange and peculiar at the time. What did he mean, "May Christ be born in you?" At the time she was unsure of what he meant, but now all these years later, sitting beside the Christmas tree, she felt the impact of his words. She discovered that Advent is a time of spiritual preparation. It is also a time of transformation. It is "discovering our soul and letting Christ be born from the waiting heart."
The thought stuck me as I read these words, “Do I leave time and space for Christ to be born in my heart during the average Advent?” I am embarrassed to say, that far to typically, the answer to that would be, “No.” I get too busy. I get too overwhelmed by all the stuff (good stuff—church stuff, family stuff) that I have to do during the Advent season that I too often miss out on the why of my activity, and certainly on the who. I get so busy working for Christ, I forget to let Jesus be born in me.
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