Room In Our Hearts At Christmas:

A Lesson From Isaac Watts

"Joy to the world! the Lord is come: let every heart prepare him room." Isaac Watts' familiar hymn seems off in its timing. Aren't we supposed to prepare a place in our hearts during Advent, so there's room for the Lord at Christmas? But Watts did not choose his words with a strict eye to the Church's calendar and tradition. The "Father of English Hymnody" was a Dissenter -- a Nonconformist who disdained the established Church of England that had retained so many of the Catholic traditions. Advent, schmadvent! Let every heart prepare room for the Lord at Christmas! Or at all times and in all seasons, for that matter.

Spiritual heart-surgery seems repeatedly necessary for any member of our fallen race to receive the earth's King. Unless we live in a state of perpetual grace, the Lord cannot be received just once and then kept. Take John the Baptist, for instance. When Jesus comes to him for baptism, John protests that it would be better for Jesus to baptize him. But a matter of months later, John wonders whether Jesus is the one to come or is he to wait for another. (Cf. Matt 3:14 and 11:3) The one who did more than any other to prepare the way of the Lord has to again prepare his own heart.

Why is this? In the case of John the Baptist, it is his mistaken expectations. He is looking for God's wrath -- waiting for a God who will "come with vengeance, with terrible recompense" for the unrepentant. If John's expectations are shaped by this quotation from Isaiah (35:4), he misses or ignores the next two verses: "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy." Jesus tries to prepare John's heart by quoting these lines. Whether John then lets go of his former expectations to make room for Jesus, we do not know; Herod executes John too soon after.

"Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" I like the uncertainty and openness reflected in John's question. In fact, it is a good question to ask at Christmas, when our heads are perhaps too full of angels, shepherds, crèches and an infant Jesus. The question can help us prepare room in our hearts for the adult Jesus who is come to heal, not charm, who wants to be followed, not adored. This particular Christmas, after the burial of one too young, I'm especially mindful that the newborn King cannot meet the hopes and expectations of the bereaved unless they make room for him in their hearts as the Crucified and Risen One. Joy? Yes, but only inasmuch as were prepared to receive a Savior other than the one we might have expected.

Isaac Watts knew this, I'm sure. When he published "Joy to the world!" in 1719, it was in the same collection as his "When I survey the wondrous cross." So, Advent, schmadvent! Like Billy Graham's "Hour of Decision," preparing room for Jesus is a weekly show. At least.