A Weary World Rejoices - Five Days of Preparing Your Heart for ChristmasSample

Read Luke 2:1-21 and Isaiah 53:3, 11-12.

And so we come. 

With Zechariah, our hearts are prepared for Your presence. 

With Elizabeth, we are ready to discover significance, intent to see You light up moments with meaning. 

With Joseph, we lay our agendas aside, releasing our self-confident grip on our “necessary” plans. 

With Mary, we are eager to receive Grace upon Grace in dependent trust. To be buried under Your mountainous merciful love. Palms facing heaven, arms outstretched. We anticipate You.

We sit with the shepherds on watchful alert. Hearts pounding, arms clinging, we barely dare to turn eyes toward the brilliant appearance. Stunned, we listen to humanity’s emancipation proclamation dispatched in the frailty of flesh, announced by God’s messenger. 

A baby.

A baby?! Where, oh where, will we find You? Positioned in palaces of power? Guarded closely by the rulers of religion? 

We hurry with the shepherds, jostling elbows in our excitement to see You. Talking over each other and urging a faster pace.

But as we arrive, we slow. Our jaws drop. Our arms extend, bringing one another to complete halt.

Wonder overtakes us. A sense of sacred space. The glory of heaven, manger-laid. Compelled with reverent awe, we kneel. 

Slicing through the silence, we hear You wail. A wail fraught with the agony of a world in need. We see Your swaddled sorrow…Savior. Voice of hearts ache and bearer of pain. Yet rising within…a song.

“A thrill of hope. The weary world rejoices. For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. Fall on your knees. O, hear the angel's voices. O, night divine. O, night when Christ was born.”

Oh, holy night from which all nights now cower. Hope is born for we have seen the Light! Emmanuel. God is with us.

And we will never be the same.  

Sitting with self:

How will you be present to Jesus, our Emmanuel this Christmas season? How will you watch and listen for His Presence with you? And when you hear and see Him, how will you respond?

Sitting with God:

Oh, Man of Sorrows manger-laid. Voice of hearts ache and bearer of pain. You are forever with us, our Emmanuel. Ever-present in the weariness of earth yet ruling in glory from heaven above. Oh, how I long to come worship at Your feet! On humble knees, I will bow. With empty hands, I will offer my heart. Build my belief. Strengthen my joy. May I live with You, this Christmas.

Sitting with others:

Will you encounter Jesus in others this Christmas? How might you hear His with-us wail in the world this season? How will you show His ever-present, always-with-us love?

I hope you enjoyed this plan!  Check out other plans by Jenni Gilbert:

• Then Sings My Soul