Before we reach Christmas, we keep the Season of Advent: four Sundays, and this year only three weeks, of preparation for Christmas. The special colour used in church is Purple—a colour used to indicate a King, and one used to show sadness or repentance.

For Christians this is a time when we can try to step aside from the headlong commercial rush to December 25th and find space and time to examine our hearts and lives, and ask ourselves about our relationship with God, and our care for His world and all the creatures in it.

We all get so immersed in creating a “perfect” Christmas with wonderful gifts, a magnificent tree, gorgeously wrapped present, a groaning table exhibiting our Nigellan skill that just sometimes we forget the central point of the Feast—the “reason for the season”.

The poem Preparations for Advent, dating from the 16th century, contrasts how we would prepare to welcome an earthly king into our homes with how we welcome Christ

yet at the coming of the King of Heaven, all’s set at six and seven;
we wallow in our sin, Christ cannot find a chamber in the inn;
we entertain him always like a stranger and, as at first, still lodge him in the manger.

See if you can find a few moments this December for some time to think and pray for Jesus and his love to be a very special guest in your home this Christmas.