pauses&clicks

Advent is a time of waiting and anticipation.  Not an easy task for many but one I’ve come to enjoy.  It’s a time of introspection and the perfect opportunity to wipe the cobwebs from one’s soul and prepare it for the coming of Christ.

I do it in and around my home in a more literal way.  Almost all vestiges of my normal home decor are taken down and packed away.  All surfaces are dusted and cleaned to make way for wreaths, trees, Santas, snowmen, nativity sets and greenery.

And then I add the lights.  As many as I can fit on trees, drape through garland, and enough outside to make sure the jolly man in the red suit can find our house.  Nothing makes me happier than enjoying the warm glow as those lights transform my environment and put the twinkle in the middle of a cold, dark winter.

This morning I read a friend’s blog and she called it “Christmas nesting.”  What a perfect term.  We prepare our home for the coming of Christmas and we prepare our hearts for the coming of a baby in a manger.  Nesting is all part of the process and over the years I’ve come to enjoy the anticipation as much as I enjoy the actual event.

In the past week I’ve been looking for the twinkle and glow of lights as I move through my world and captured these images in various places with my ever constant iPhone camera:

This year all of my sons, the women they (and we!) love, and our three grandchildren, will all be under our roof for Christmas.  It’s the first time all of us have ever been together at the same time as two of the girls have never met each other.  My heart is full and I will enjoy every single task in these last days of preparation and nesting.

All the work will be worth it when I see the soft glow and twinkle of Christmas lights reflected in the eyes of my family.

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Christmas puts twinkle into a dreary winter and in the best of circumstances, hope into hearts that might otherwise be in despair.  If a baby can change the world then we can certainly become better people and make a better world because of Him.  We just have to prepare our hearts and allow our lights to shine.