Be prepared!!

Today we must all have lots to do to prepare for Christmas;  put up the tree, hoover the house, make sure the lights work- which you know they won't, buy new lights, wrap presents, take out your inheritance to buy stamps, phone people you haven't bothered to speak to all year to get their address proving you haven't spoken to them all year,  post cards, and all the other things you know you have to get done. 

Then for us this year there's a whole new level of preparations for our new and imminent arrival- find clothes that fit me, buy clothes that fit me, sort out a push chair, find the spare room under all the junk, change the spare room into a nursery- the lists seems endless! 

Usually I plot all the reminders into my phone and then watch TV stressing about how to get it all done- instead of getting it all done- but I turned to my bible instead. 

Because today is the 1st of December- (apparently not advent til tomorrow) and so a good day for thinking about what preparations might have been going on in the middle East....

The bottom line was they weren't! You see neither Mary nor Elizabeth knew they were going to have a baby at this point. Elizabeth should have been told in glorious technicolour by her husband who had had a miraculous visitation by an angel- but he couldn't as he had been struck dumb for not believing them. Mary must have known something was brewing when she found out that her totally barren cousin was pregnant but nothing could have prepared her for what was to happen next....

There were preparations for a census - I was so excited when my pregnant friend in Bolivia had to have one of those recently and couldn't resist asking if they would be travelling by donkey- but Mary and Joseph were "just friends" and had no idea of the plans that were being laid out for them. 

There may have been preparations for a strange astrological happening to occur soon but only the wise men knew about that and at this point they were saying nothing.

But there were preparations in heaven. God was moving everything into place, plotting his first act, setting and preparing all the scenery and all the props. Now all he needed was a cast list....

Today as you prepare for the celebrations, be prepared to be surprised by God, used by God, spoken to by God. Today in heaven things are being prepared. Are you??