Preparing Him Room.

The Christmas trees are decorated. The empty boxes are still piled up. The dining room table still holding all the displaced decor of our home. I can not find my Christmas card addresses and have no idea what our card will look like. There is much work to be done. And I am just a grump. This blasted spine surgery -- still six months in our future -- has weighted down my emotions and had a ripple effect through my entire sweet family.

I wish the Orthopedic appointment had been in January. I wish Benjamin's spine was straight. I wish that I understood why the last year has been such a challenge for my boys. I wish there was an easy fix. I wish....

And no it does not help at all that Benjamin is scheduled for hand surgery on Dec. 14 (please pray for that!) and we have to emotionally prepare for that as well as travel to Minnesota without the rest of our family so he can have that surgery. (And if you are not reading this with a full out whine in your voice, then you just are not doing it right.)

But in my house there is a little redhead that really does not understand the strain of surgeries. Oh, she understands in a very real way when they are upon us -- she has lived through several with her brothers. But she does not -- thankfully -- feel the same stress that her parents and siblings feel knowing these two surgeries are in the future for Benjamin. She simply knows that Christmas is around the corner and feels the absolute delight that every child should know in the anticipation of that wondrous holiday.

And that is what is keeping my head above water today. Finding the joy for this little one -- making the cookies, decorating the trees and singing Carols at the top of our lungs in the car.

Last week, she had ordered a Christmas Tree shaped cookie with her lunch at our favorite bakery. She could not finish her pasta salad but assured me that she had room for dessert: "I have a Christmas tree-shaped-space right here, Mom!"

I got so tickled...but later as we were singing Carols, I was struck by a beautiful mental picture:

Joy to the World , the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room,

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

Do you have a Jesus-shaped space carved out this Christmas season? Have you prepared him room? Have I?

In order to prepare room for the One we celebrate this Season, we must pack up our self-pity, cast aside our troubles and embrace the Joy that was born more than 2000 years ago in a stable.

Will you join me this week in preparing Him room? I know we will be blessed.