Christmas is coming.  Thanksgiving marks the begginning of the Christmas shopping season, but sometimes we forget that the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is about more then the shopping, the baking, the cards, decorations.

 It is the time of preparation, spiritually, mentally, and morally for Christmas.  It is Advent.

Advent is one of those overlooked times of the year.  Many of the churches and organized Christian faiths are paying less and less attention in this time of instant gratification.  Why prepare, why wait for the Christmas spirit when we can sing the carols today.  Look at the trees today.

But like so many things in this life, it is less about the destination, and more about the journey.

We complain about the commercialization of Christmas.  We complain about the lack of meaning of the holiday season.  There are complaints that Christmas is so anti-climatic today.  It fails to live up to the hype.  It fails to satisfy the spirit.

That is why the voice is crying out in the desert – prepare ye the way of the Lord!

It is the preparation.  The prayer.  The reading.  The reflection.  Visiting those who don’t get visitors.  Giving the gift of forgiveness to those who have wronged us.  Opening our hearts and minds to the possibilty that the gifts of Christmas are not in boxes and bows, but in the capacity of our hearts and minds to overlook each others faults and past sins and realize the gift that we are to each other.