Cookie Week (12/02/2024)

This is cookie week at my home. I promised cookies to the Confirmation class on Wednesday. Thursday, I bake cut-out cookies for decorating Thursday evening for the Cookie Walk that is Saturday. And in between, I will bake my other cookies to donate to the Cookie Walk and for our family’s Christmas stash. By Saturday evening, every apron I own will be covered in flour and my kitchen will probably look like an abandoned troll station and I will have bakes about 50 dozen cookies. It’ll be great! ‘Tis the season.

We all have ways of preparing for Christmas, of making our way through Advent. The thing I love about Advent most is that it reminds me in so many ways, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually that it’s not all about me. While my prayer time is focused on preparing myself for Christ, making room in my life and my very being for Christ, it also includes prayer for the world and prayer to humbly and lovingly give of myself to others as Christ taught us and showed us. And it is about recognizing Christ in others, looking for Christ in the moment.

Advent is a season to be lived not just endured. Advent calls us to make preparations for “the coming.” Christ is coming! I grew up in the south where hospitality is the national anthem. So, it makes sense that I begin my preparations with food, with ways of saying “welcome” and ways of sharing with others. But there is more work to be done than simply filling the cookie jar. During these next 23 days, we are called to spend time in prayer, time reading scripture, time doing special things for others. Do you have an Advent plan to prepare yourself?

Whatever your personal approach to Advent is, it is time to begin. We have been called “to prepare.” Whether it involves flour and sugar or ribbons and tape, the time has come. Let us all make our plan for preparing for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.