Preparations Needed? ...

Wednesday, November 30, 2011. There are events where preparations are needed. When we get visitors at home, for example. Often, we need to clean the house, we need to prepare the guest room and the meals, need to shop for food and various other little things. Without preparations the visit will not be possible.

Preparations Needed? …

But there are many other things where preparations are needed. When you want to work as a scientist, you need to learn and study first. Without the time of preparation - school and university - it is usually not possible to be a scientist. You would not have the knowledge and the skills to do the job, even if you are intelligent and smart.

I play the piano - that also needs preparations. In fact, it needs years of intensive training and exercise, to be able to play the instrument and to generate beautiful music. You need to be able to do accords, to play smooth melodies, to be able to control the strength of your tones and the way it sounds. You need to get to know the different styles and epochs of music.

In general, there is not much in life which would go well without preparations. The activities I did before I got my current job (leading a team of around 25 scientists) were needed to prepare me well, such that I can do the work I need to do now in a sovereign way. One job can be the preparation for the next …!

The preparations of Advent …

The Bible speaks of the preparation for the coming of Jesus (it usually talks about the Saviour or the “son of men”, the name Jesus first appears in the New Testament when this Saviour is identified. I think it is a little bit like with the different preparations I mentioned before. You need them, if you really want to make sense out of this coming of Jesus.

But what exactly is it we are preparing? We are not training a particular skill, are we? We are not exercising mechanical abilities, like for the piano. What are we preparing?

The prophet John in the gospels speaks about preparing our hearts and minds for God coming to us. We need to open our hearts, we need to realize what justice and truth is, we need to see the other people and our whole world, as a world which God wants to change. Preparation is needed, to be able to receive Jesus as the Lord. Are we prepared? Am I? Are you? (Roland Potthast) ... more texts