When someone asks you this, what are they really asking?

Do you have presents thought up, bought and wrapped? Is your baking done? Is your house clean and decorated? Have you been working out and eating only one or two cookies? Is your calendar squared away and do you feel confident to make conversation with people around a veggie tray?

The question flusters me every time, because no. None of that. Not even one. And the poor person who asked. They are just making conversation. So why do I freeze like a person who just got a failing grade on the Christmas Checklist report card?

Advent means "coming." Instead of looking at it like a deadline where so many things need to be done before I can get there, I want to look at it with anticipation and excitement. It's exactly because

I can't get everything done that He came.

Christmas Day is not a finish line. It's a celebration of the great relief that came to us in the form of a baby who would carry all the messed up, heavy, hurt, broken parts of us, who would bind them up with his sacrifice and love and who would transform them to glory with His resurrection.

Relief. Rest. Righteousness. Health. Balance. Acceptance. Grace. Joy. LOVE so big and unconditional that it died for you. And rose again.

All the things Jesus' birth means. Am I ready to celebrate that? Am I ready to accept the gift of this?

"Are you ready for Christmas?"

I'm so ready.