Yes, I'm ready....are you?

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." - John 3:16

How many times this week have you heard or you yourself asked someone, "So, are you ready for Christmas?" I would guess many as it seems to be the thing to say during this week before Christmas. The "how about this weather?" of late December.

This is the first year I have ever really stopped to think about that common question. People asking if you have all the shopping done, all the cooking done...do you have everything necessary before they close the stores and you are put on the spot Christmas morning without a gift for someone or missing an ingredient to the favorite family recipe. The question implies a sense of panic before the big day.

Funny when you stop and think about it. I mean Christmas is the celebration of God's entry into our world. His fulfillment of a covenant made long before. Christ was God's gift of salvation to us. It is so simple it can be summed up in that one simple but most beautiful verse of John 3:16.

However, my point today is "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey used to say. While most people who have ever been exposed to any church have heard John 3:16, how many have read the rest? I hadn't. In those next verses lies the answer to the question, "Are you ready?"

"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." John 3: 17-18

During this Christmas season examine your heart. Have you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, submitting your life to His will? Have you put aside the world? Have you come into the light? When you hear "Are you ready for Christmas?" in the next couple of days will your answer be "Yes, I am ready."

Lord, help me to understand the true gift of Your Son. Let me examine my life so that I can honestly say "I am ready"...ready to live a life worthy of Christ. Worthy of the gift you gave. Let me wake up each day and seek Your will, not mine, so that I may serve You. In Jesus Christ I pray, Amen.