Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." - Matthew 3:2

It seems like everywhere you go people ask the same question.  At the grocery checkout counter - "Are you ready for Christmas?"  At the bank drive through window - "Are you ready for Christmas?"  At the doctor's office - "Are you ready for Christmas?" I think the answer to that question depends on how you define "ready." Let me ask this question:  "Are you ready for Jesus?"  Now that puts the idea of being ready in a completely different Christmas light, doesn't it?  John the Baptist was sent by God to get the people ready to meet Jesus. Here's what Matthew had to say about him:

In those days, John the Baptist came preaching - saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."  This is He who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:  "A voice of One calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord; make straight paths for Him.'"…"People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan.  Confessing their sin…” - Matthew 3:1-3, 5

We don't like the words "repent" or "repentance" very much.  They mean "to make a radical change, to turn and go in the opposite direction from sin (another word we're not fond of) to God."  Repentance involves an element of grief over the way we have lived apart from God and a decision to run toward the Father. That was God's idea of the way to prepare for Christ's arrival in the book of Matthew, and it is still God's idea of preparing for Him today.  Think about this poem and ask yourself, "Are you ready for Christmas?"

"Ready for Christmas," she said with a sigh -
As she gave a last touch to the gifts piled high…
Then wearily sat for a moment AND READ -'til soon, very soon, she was nodding her head.   Then quietly spoke a voice in her dream, "Ready for Christmas, what do you mean?"
She woke with a start and a cry of despair. "There's so little time and I've still to prepare.  Oh, Father!  Forgive me, I see what You mean! Yes, more than the giving of gifts and a tree. It's the heart swept clean that He wanted to see, A heart that is free from bitterness and sin.

So be ready for Christmas - and ready for Him.