Preparing for (Next) Christmas

I've already started working on my Christmas cards for next year. No, I don't have obsessive-compulsive disorder. I won't address the envelopes until Thanksgiving rolls around again, and I never start my Christmas shopping before January.

But I do like to be prepared. I make my own Christmas cards, and I need a new photograph to grace the cover for 2013. If I wait until next year's decorations are up, it'll be too late. So I drove around the neighborhood Saturday taking pictures of nativity scenes, and I'll be on the lookout for other subjects all month.

Advent is the season for preparation, anyway. As we prepare to celebrate Christ's birth, we also get ready for his second coming.

Besides, I'm only starting a year in advance. God prepared his plan for our salvation before the beginning of time as we know it. Then he waited for just the right moment.

"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons." (Galatians 4:4-5, ESV)

Are you prepared?