Mastering getting ready

Thursday of the Third Week of Advent

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving

and make good your vows to the Most High.

Psalm 50:14

I sit in the quiet room in the late evening, the space lighted only by the Christmas tree. I allow the peace of the moment to sink in, comforting me like a well-loved blanket. 

It has been a good day, a day of preparation. Some presents wrapped. A package ready to be mailed to family far away. The kitchen cleaned, email dealt with, work projects wrangled.

The day has been wrapped in prayer as well, beginning with a morning healing prayer group and ending with bible study, a discussion of angels, and the courage to ask God to come among us with great might.

Now I pray again, thanking God for the fullness, the holy solace, the solitude and the community. I realize that, at this point in Advent, preparation has become my spiritual practice. I may never be ready; yet I have come close to mastering getting ready. And for this I am grateful.