Advent Devotional - December 3, 2016

“Joy to the world the Lord has come / Let earth receive her King / Let every heart prepare Him room / And heaven and nature sing”

-Joy to the World

Parents know the feeling. They’ve strategized to maximize space in their tiny home, doing their best to accommodate all that comes with a growing family and young kids. Their house is an odd combination of storage bins, Pinterest ideas, and IKEA inventions, all of them designed to give as much living space as possible. And then Christmas comes. Specifcally, Christmas with the grandparents. And despite conversations and pleas leading up to that day, they will now head home with, among other things, a life-sized toy kitchen and a 4-person inside-only tent. “Where are we going put all this stuff?” they ask.

Well, it’s not just parents of young children who struggle with adequate space and room. In fact, we all struggle with this, spiritually. Consider your own life. Is it not true that Jesus sometimes exists in the margins? That he is peripheral rather than central? Maybe even an afterthought rather than a burning passion? To put it plainly, our hearts are full, but we confess that too often they’re full of the wrong things. Room must be prepared.

That’s what this song is calling us to do. The Lord and King who lovingly made us, powerfully saved us, and gently rules has come in the flesh. We must prepare him room by crowning him as Lord and King of our lives, regarding him as our rightful Sovereign and our gracious Master. He will sufer no rivals. He will entertain no competitors. But this too is gospel, for in preparing him room we are at the same time being prepared for true, even “great joy” (Luke 2:10).