I'm Getting Myself Ready for You

"I've cut out eggs and turkey legs/
With corned beef hash, I'm all through/
'Cause I'm getting myself ready for you.

I'll never stoop to onion soup/
And pork and beans are taboo/
'Cause I'm getting myself ready for you.

To be sure of being worthy of you, dear, in every way/
I'm building the perfect physique/
Besides which, I want you to holler 'hooray!'/
When first you see me in my -- so to speak..."

--I'm Getting Myself Ready for You, from the musical "High Society"

It's Christmas-- the Christmas season, anyway-- and we're all teaching about what the birth of Jesus means for our students. To explain it, I offer this horrible bawdy song from a classic musical, and here, I offer my defense of this song.

The song is about a horrible old man seducing a young reporter the night before his niece's wedding at a party. Uncle Willie is talking about what he's going to do to get ready for his romance with Liz. He's planning to excercise and eat right and give up bad habits to be worthy of her. How is that not a Christian message, even disguised as it is in the language of sex and pursuit?

Jesus called people to give up old ways and habits and things we know are bad for us.

He reminded us that our bodies are temples for the Holy Spirit and that we have to be careful what we put into them.

Paul praised exercise, both physical and spiritual.

And David wrote that God can see everything about us, and that meeting God amounts to stripping off everything that we've put on to hide parts of ourselves from the world, and sometimes from God too.

So Jesus, this year, I'm getting myself ready for you!