“Keep your shirts on; keep the lights on! Be like house servants waiting for their master to come back from his honeymoon, awake and ready to open the door when he arrives and knocks. Lucky the servants whom the master finds on watch!” Luke 12:35-36 (MSG)

It’s interesting how God’s message meets us right where we are. It gets filtered through the lens of our momentary circumstances, and sheds light on the exact place we need illumination. There’s a certain synchronicity to it. Sometimes God’s Message joins with disparate threads of our life, and weaves together important life lessons.

This week has, obviously, been focused on the opening of Annie. As I read Jesus’ example of the house servants being awake and ready for the arrival of their master, I couldn’t help but think of my first entrance in the show tonight.

With his opening entrance, Warbucks enters his mansion after being away on a six-week trip. His servants bustle about having everything ready, anticipating his arrival. There is sense of anxiety, preparation, and excitement in the air as they worry about having everything ready.

The season of Christmas is known as Advent, which literally means “arrival” or “coming.” This past Sunday in worship the message was about preparing our hearts for the arrival of Jesus. How would our thoughts, words, and actions change if we knew that Jesus was literally returning on the eve of December 24th, 2010?

Today, Jesus weaves different thoughts from my week into one strand, reminding me to be mindful of what Christmas is really about: the arrival of the Master. Christmas is more than goodies and presents and even more than family and friends. Christmas is when the Master arrives.

I want to be prepared.