As December dawns, most families are busy putting Christmas programs and parties on the calendar, making holiday travel plans, and purchasing Christmas gifts. These are all wonderful things, but if your family is anything like my family, these good things can squeeze out the best thing—nurturing a longing in our hearts and our homes for a fresh sense of wonder that God has come to us in Jesus. If we do not set aside time to focus together on what God’s Word tells us about the promise of Christ, we can find ourselves on Christmas morning surrounded by mounds of torn gift wrap, our laps full of presents, but with hearts that are empty and unprepared.

As you enter into December this year, I hope you and your family will gather at some point each day to turn your focus to God’s promise of a Savior using this book. You’ll be reminded of how God’s people longed for centuries for the Messiah to come and read the Gospel accounts of Messiah’s coming. By setting aside this time, you’ll turn away from this world’s materialistic frenzy and toward a truly sacred celebration of Christ’s coming.

Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room provides a short reading for every day in the month of December, taking your family along on the journey of identifying with the distant longings of Israel, listening for the angel’s announcement, and gazing at the baby in the manger. You’ll find several suggested discussion questions that will help to transform this time from a one-person reading into a meaningful discussion in which everybody in the family participates. Each day’s questions begin with a question that even the youngest member of the family can likely answer. There are additional Scriptures you might want to read as part of your family discussion and several Christmas songs your family can talk through and then sing together. We’ve also included several lined pages spaced throughout the book where you can make dated notes of comments made and questions asked by various family members that you want to remember as the years go by.

The busyness of December can easily crowd out contemplation of the amazing reality of God’s coming to live among us as one of us. I hope your family will not succumb to our culture’s empty busyness of this season, but that in your home, every heart will prepare room for Jesus.