Preparing for Nativity

This season of Nativity should be a time of preparation for all of us who profess ourselves to be Christians. From before time God was preparing to come to be born within human history as a man. Mary and Joseph had to prepare, in many ways, for the birth of God's Son: through prayer and piety, through traveling to Jerusalem, through making a place in that cave for the birth.

The great second century Christian thinker, Origen, wrote of preparation in

a sermon, beginning with the words of the Forerunner John: "The voice cries, 'Prepare ye the way of the Lord'. Which way shall we prepare for the Lord? A way on the earth: Can the Word of God travel such a road" Or rather must we not prepare the way within us, setting up in our hearts a straight and true way? This is the way through which the Word of God enters, and comes to rest within the bounds of the

human body. And great indeed is the heart of man, wide and spacious as if it were a world in itself… See than that no small thing is the heart of man which can contain so much. And see also that its greatness is not in body quantity, but in the power by which it can receive such knowledge of the truth… Let us consider this. Through whatever cities we may have passed, we have still within our minds the style and the shape of their squares and house and walls and buildings, stored in our memory. We keep within us, as in a picture, the roads, we have traveled. The sea we have voyaged over we can recall in moments of quiet recollection. No small thing, as if I have said, is the heart of man. If then it can contain so much, and is not something small and narrow, then let a way for the Lord be prepared in it, and let His path be made straight, so that the word of God and His Wisdom may enter there. Prepare this way by a worthy manner of living. and with good works make straight the path so that without hindrance the Word of God may tread this way to you, and give you understanding, both of His Coming and of His Mysteries, to Whom be glory and empire forever and ever. Amen."

Let us not let the practicality of his admonition be lost on us. Our heart stores up all that it is exposed to. Like a computer, it is filled with data, some of which is useful, some of which is not, some of which is useful, some of which is junk. As Deacon Dorotheos said to me recently on a Turkish mountain top: "time is very important". We can use our time to store up eternal things in our heart, or we can store up things that one day will be burned.

Many years ago, a very pious friend of mine while speaking in a store front church in my hometown launched into a perfect rendition of Hank William's "Your Cheatin' Heart". He nailed it, perfectly. Then he said, "I learned that song many years ago. But, it is completely useless to me. How much more better off would I have been reading the scriptures rather than listening to that song?" Mason was right. He hadn't even tried to learn that song, but it forever was implanted in his heart, just like all of the things that Origen spoke about so many centuries ago. Where we allow ourselves to be, in body or in mind, has a great bearing upon what we store up. Our preparation is how we live our life, each day, minute by minute: where we travel, what we do, what we think.

As we approach the Nativity of our Lord, as this Nativity fast enters its final days, let us think more perfectly about how we can prepare our hearts for His coming to us, and our coming to Him.