Christmas is one of those times when I enjoy the process every bit as much as the result. Advent, the “season of preparation,” turns out to be  moment after moment of purpose, creativity, imagination and expectation.

The journey to Christmas really is the destination, in much the same way that our lives of discipleship are more than roads leading us toward a future with God; rather, our discipleship is our life with God.

So yesterday we took Andrew and Alicia into the town of Wake Forest for lunch, and then spent the afternoon and evening working on the Christmas tree.

This is the first “real” tree we’ve had in almost 20 years. Granted, by the time we chop it, trim it, hold it in place with thumbscrews, plug it into the wall, electrocute it, and cover it with bizarre decorations it’s hardly alive any more; but it’s real, and I didn’t realize how much I’d missed the scent, the stickiness, the imperfections, and the sheer Christmas-ness of a fresh-cut tree until it was up and illuminated.

Preparing our house typically takes a week to ten days, and then there’s constant fine-tuning all the way through Christmas Eve. But I’ve got to tell you, if anyone offered to do it all for us, so we could leave the house for a few hours and then return to find it all “Christmas-ized,” then I don’t believe we’d be even a little bit interested.

Like the morning I climbed my way to the top of Mount Sinai to watch the sun rise, the view is improved immeasurably by the journey.

“Preparation” is a constant in our spiritual lives. The journey is always significant, and the journey is ongoing. The prophet Isaiah (40) talked about the coming King hundreds of years before Christ was born.  “The glory of the Lord revealed,” not only at his coming, it is also revealed in the way that we get ready. There is glory in the preparation…

“In the wilderness prepare
    the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
    a highway for our God.
 Every valley shall be raised up,
    every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
    the rugged places a plain.
 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
    and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”