Advent

Advent...

the arrival of something important or awaited

fulfillment

a coming

destined

the season preceeding Christmas


Christmas is a rush, a blowing by of red and green, the up and down of trees and tinsel.  It's the heat of the oven as you bake Christmas goodies, interupted by the coolness of new fallen snow.  It is braving the crowds and racing for a parking space.  It is lists of gifts and lists of tasks.  It's pausing occasionally to consider a baby in a manger but mostly remaining caught up in the actions of preparing for a holiday.

For me, I think the weeks preceding Christmas are simply reminders of what my spiritual life looks like throughout the years:  the busyness of life interspersed with time of quiet and reflection.  It shouldn't really surprise me that I have trouble preparing my heart for the season of Christmas and daily remembering the birth of a baby who changed the world.

I'm hoping this year will be different.  I want my kids to not get lost in the sea of gifts and travel and food.  I want Christmas to be a time of reflection for our family, a time to remember how Christmas isn't just about the manger but that the manger rests in the shadow of the cross. 

A few months ago, I found a great little book in a thrift store, Countdown to Christmas Devotions for Families   It has over 30 days of readings and covers the days before Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the days following Christmas.  The readings are short, Scripture based, and are supposed to be connected to an ornament that the kids hang on an Advent Tree.  Each ornament is an object that represents a spiritual truth.  For example, today we read about newspapers and how God's important events are recorded not in a newspaper but in the Bible.  I don't have the ornaments but it was really easy to find pictures of each item.  We might make a garland or something similar with those pictures; I haven't decided yet.  And some of them are very common things that will be easy to use the actual objects and do a little object lesson with.  One of the days uses a pine cone and evergreen trees as a reminder of how God's love is ever present.  I'm pretty sure the kids will like holding and describing pine cones when we get to that day.  Another day is a balloon to represent how the Holy Spirit is like a mighty wind.  My kids are balloon fanatics so using their "windyness" to inflate a balloon and then play with it will make their evening, I'm sure.

It's a great little book.  And a thrift store find no less.  Here's to hoping it plants spiritual seeds in the hearts of all of  our family members.