Made Ready

Standing alone in the quiet of a winter landscape, a little evergreen wears a covering of freshly fallen snow. Its branches are adorned with simple touches of red berries and gentle lights, as though someone lovingly prepared it for a celebration. There are no presents beneath its branches, no gathering of people around it, yet it stands beautifully adorned, waiting.
There is something tender about being made ready for a season we may not feel ready to enter.
Life has a way of changing the landscape around us. Familiar faces are missing, traditions no longer feel the same, and sometimes the heart struggles to find joy in what once came so naturally. Yet even in those quiet, lonely places, God has not ceased His work.
Perhaps being made ready does not mean having everything in place or feeling the happiness we think we should. Perhaps it simply means allowing God to continue His work within us, even when we cannot see what He is preparing us for.
Made Ready is a gentle reminder that beauty can still exist in a season of sorrow, that being alone does not mean being forgotten, and that the One who began a good work in us has not walked away from it.
“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
— Philippians 1:6 (ESV)