There’s More Room This Year

Preparation is the point of the Advent season. You can, as if overnight, sense anticipation in the air. After a year like the one the world witnessed in 2020, we have an uneasy anticipation. We have been living in an atmosphere of “when is the other shoe going to drop?” We have allowed anticipation to fall to the side of “the uh oh’s” in uneasy uncertainty.

Anticipation of Messiah was similar, no one really knew what was to transpire. Anticipation can be exciting and exhilarating, not just an emotion focused on the fear of the uncertainty, but on the excitement of the unknown. Choosing the exhilarating side of uncertainty can happen only when we are focused upon the One who is and has been Faithful.

While listening to ‘Joy to the World’ on the radio, the phrase “let every heart prepare Him room” hung suspended in the air before me. The lyrics lingered there for a bit prompting a response. “Yes, hello? I see you. What do you want, lyrics?” What came to mind was a question on process. How is room prepared? Well, most seemingly, we prepare room two ways, one by emptying out and the other by stretching.

Typically, we intentionally seek to let go of some things in order to make room. This year however, it seems the entire year was set aside to expose, shake, empty out, and stretch. As a result, we begin December with a lot more room to be filled. He stands at the door and knocks, so maybe the last few years we were too busy to hear His light tap.

Maybe last year, we were looking at all that was in front of us and yet unaware of our complacency. The uncertainty of tomorrow in 2020 is the same as the uncertainty we faced at Christmas 2019. Just a few short months later our entire world turned upside down.

Well, Jesus, was born to a virgin in a stable because there was no room for Him in the Inn. His birth also turned the world upside down. He was unexpected. He came in the midst of uncertainty. Yet a few shepherds with the eyes for the unusual, responded in fear of the Lord, as angels appeared to them and told them of the Good News. Their response was the catalyst for them to journey to see the unusual. Their anticipation led them to a miracle.

It is in the uncomfortable, the stretching, the expansions, contractions, and the risk, that the reason for the season expands forward into new and uncharted territory. His Presence turned the world upside down and His return will do the same. Have we forgotten His everyday presence – Emmanuel, God with us? Will we open the door with anticipation this year and swing it wide? “Come in. Come in,” we exclaim in anticipation. “You are more important to us than the comforts, the traditions, and the fear.” Make room for the King of Glory to enter in. He comes to fill you with all the unexpected Joy, Peace, Mercy, Forgiveness and Grace that your heart has been longing for.  What if the trials and upheaval of the year actually prepared your heart to receive more of Him? Wouldn’t it be the best Christmas of all?

Preparation is key. Prepare yourself for MORE of His Presence. (Check out this song.) What is stopping you? Open the door in anticipation. Happy Advent!

Luke 2:7 “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in the manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”

 Luke 2:15 “…the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

Luke 2: 20 “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”

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Jill, her husband Bob, their children; Samuel, Grace, Lilly (all alumni of Deer Run and Moose River Outpost Leadership Programs); and their two golden retrievers, Isaiah and Ezekiel, live in suburban Connecticut. They are a typical atypical family, and despite living a suburban New England life, they run One Life Missions Foundation which was established in 2009.

Jill’s personal ministry is as a founding member of Living Free Partners, launched by Stanwich Congregational Church of Greenwich, CT in 2011. She ministers and teaches locally; as well as nationally and internationally in partnership with Ingrid Davis Ministries. She serves as a member of the Intercessory team and her passion is helping polish off the gem within us, so that we can be stewards of the destiny God gave us.

In the journey, she has lovingly collected testimonies of Holy Spirit’s Presence in her life. She is in the process of seeking to publish this collection as a Devotional entitled, He IS Real To Me.  Reach out, visit her website, and subscribe to her Awakenings Blog.