ready

Opening Prayer: Make us ever ready for your coming, Lord Jesus.  That we might be awake and alert, and constantly on the lookout for you, whenever and wherever you choose to arrive.  Amen.

Scripture: Luke 12:35-48

Journal: What does it look like to live in readiness for the return of Jesus?  How do we cultivate such a life?

Reflection: If nothing else, the season of Advent is meant to cultivate in us a continual sense of readiness.  Because the first coming of God into our lives and our world, always points us to the second.  Thus, for those of us on this side of that very first Christmas miracle—the Word becoming flesh and making his dwelling among us—the season of Advent is kind of a dress rehearsal for what is to come.  Through “practicing” Advent each and year, through watching and waiting and longing and yearning and staying on our spiritual toes, we make ourselves ready for his final coming.  The time when he will come and do away with all pain and sorrow, all sadness and suffering.  The time when he will come and make all things new.  Now that’s something worth staying ready for!

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord, help me to be watchful for your presence in my life and your movement in my world.  Help me to not get distracted by the obligations, demands, and activities of this day, but help me to be attentive and alert to you and your greater purposes for my life.  Amen. (Watch and Wait by Jim Branch)