It was mom’s party, but whenever she hosted her bridge club my brother and I would get stuck cleaning the house. We then had to take a shower early and get ready for bed and hide ourselves safely out of sight. Thankfully we were allowed to watch a special on TV – something like A Charlie Brown Christmas. But regardless of whether anything was worth watching, we always had to get ready when someone was visiting.

Get ready. Someone’s coming.

Advent begins by proclaiming that Christ Jesus, the Son of God, is coming again. We don’t know when He will come, so we are called to be on the lookout and to be ready when He does appear. Part of the way we get ready is to clean up the house of our heart and our life a bit. While we can’t really cleanse ourselves, we can at least acknowledge that we’re dirty and we need a bath. So, confession is where we own the dirt we’re covered in. Repentance is crawling out of our mudholes and turning to the only One who can wash us clean of all our junk.

Advent is known as a penitential season. This means we examine our lives and ask God to help us turn from our messes and live as people who are ready to meet our Savior. God provided the soap and water by sending His Son. Join me in going to the fountain of cleansing this Advent (and again and again) so that when Jesus comes, we may rejoice to meet Him.

After all, it's better to be ready. It was never pretty when we forgot that company was coming. And besides - Charlie Brown’s got nothing on the Special that is coming when Christ returns....