This 31-day Advent guide is suitable for individual or small group use throughout the month of December. The author looks at how God planned and prepared the way for the birth of Jesus and how the cast of the original Christmas story played their part. But it also invites us to prepare for His coming again into our lives. We are encouraged as we prepare for Christmas, also to give attention to preparing ourselves spiritually, not as an afterthought, but as a priority. Derek Tidball starts by taking us back into the Old Testament to see the wider picture and thus deepen our wonder of the coming of Christ, that the Saviour was promised long ago. As we go through the month we follow the preparing of the way of the Lord: a long time ago, in the real world - the hope of the world, among the participants, in our own lives and for His coming again.