It’s December 12th and this is the current state of my house…🎄🎄📦📦
Boxes everywhere.
Some freshly delivered from Amazon, while others have been sitting there for weeks…ever since the day I brought them down from the attic.
Yes, I am embarrassed to admit that for the past 3 weeks, my family has had to carefully step around boxes of my good intentions piled up in our hallway…each one filled with enough decor to transform an ordinary house into a winter wonderland.
Last night my husband finally decided it was time for an intervention 🤣— suggesting that with less than two weeks left until Christmas, I should just throw in the towel on the rest of my decorating plans…so we can actually have some semblance of a normal living room once again.
In the words of Stephanie Judith Tanner:
How rude.
😂😂😂😂
For your information, the reason I haven’t yet finished the decorating is because I’ve been preoccupied with arguably more important things…such as keeping our kids alive and stuff.
🙄🙄🙄🤣
But if I’m being honest, in my heart of hearts, I know he’s right…😔 we can’t keep living this way…at least not without ending up on an episode of hoarders or something.
I just wish I had time to do it all — enough time to feed my kids AND and set up all 87 pieces my miniature Christmas village. 😂
But I don’t.
I’m only one person and I only have a limited amount of time.
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On a more serious and personal note…my husband’s beloved grandmother unfortunately passed away this week 😔.
It’s times like these that make you stop and pause and think about the very limited time we have here on this earth as well.
We’ve all obviously been thinking a lot about her this weekend…and one thing that struck me is how even though she lived what we would consider “a long, full life,” 90 years still somehow doesn’t seem long enough.
“Don’t blink,” they say.
Because the stark reality is that some of us won’t even live THAT long. None of us is promised tomorrow, let alone 90 years.
With such a limited amount of time…what will we use it for?
Jesus teaches us to use the time we are given to prepare.
Prepare for what?
Our own death and/or His second coming.
Thankfully, Grandma H. did use her time to prepare and she taught her family to do the same. ❤️
But why doesn’t everyone spend their time this way?
Unfortunately, some people don’t prepare because they simply don’t believe.
But as believers, we know we need to prepare! So, we set out with good intentions, but we need to make sure the time doesn’t slip away from us.
Just as I got side tracked with the Christmas decor, Jesus warns us of doing the same with our very own lives.
In the parable of the sower, Jesus warns that sometimes the “cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches” can choke out God’s purpose for our lives (Matthew 13:22).
In other words, when the frivolous things take over our time, we’re in danger of running out of time to devote to the things that really matter — the work of the Lord.
What happens when that happens?
Well, we’ll unfortunately be like the 5 foolish virgins whose lamps weren’t ready for the bridegroom — a parable that warns us to prepare for the second coming of Christ (Matthew 25:1-13).
Because we don’t know how much time we have, we not only need to prepare but prepare with a sense of urgency. Those described in Luke 9:57-62 believed, but didn’t treat their calling with the urgency it called for…why?
Simply put, because it just wasn’t a “convenient” time for them. They thought they had more time…just as Felix did in Acts 24:25.
Life is always going to be full of demands on our time…so, there will never be a more convenient time to follow Christ than the present. In Luke 10:38-42, Mary recognized this, while Martha did not:
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” 41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Christ calls us to be a Mary in a Martha world.
So, while seeing those boxes in the hallway may irritate me every time I walk past them, they should actually serve as a reminder that I’ve been trying to put first things first — God and my family. If I’m overcommitted, I’m overcommitted to Christ.
December 25th is coming in less than 2 weeks whether I am prepared for it or not. As much as I would like to turn back the clock (or the advent calendar, for that matter) and somehow magically have time to check off every item on my “to-do” list, that’s not going to happen.
And that’s fine. Because the truth is, those boxes could sit there all year long and it wouldn’t change my eternal salvation one bit. 📦😊
Until next time…
-PWAP
