Category Archives: Faith

December 1st.  Going up on the side of the oak cupboard at the edge of the kitchen is a calendar.  A small, stuffed Santa peers over the edge of the pocket in the top left corner.  He waits for little fingers to move him along, finding treats and family events on the 24 day journey.  I remember the calendar.  I remember driving through neighborhoods, wide-eyed at Christmas lights.  I remember decorating the tree, gardening gloves adorning the luckiest hands.  I remember a zoo soaked in color and light, and a fireplace topped with milk and cookies for a middle-of-the-night guest.

The traditions my parents worked so hard to establish for our family when I was growing up are now treasures buried deep in my heart.  And this year, I want to begin building these traditions for my own young family.  But as I thought about creating an advent calendar, I was struck with the realization that I don’t even know what advent is!  I remember the calendar.  I don’t remember the advent calendar. 

I wasn’t about to hang up a calendar that I didn’t even know the meaning of.  (There’s enough of those traditions floating around during the holiday season, aren’t there?)  So I looked it up.

1. a coming into place, view, or being; arrival: the advent of the holiday season.

2. ( usually initial capital letter ) the coming of Christ into the world.

3. ( initial capital letter ) the period beginning four Sundays before Christmas, observed in commemoration of the coming of Christ into the world.

4. ( usually initial capital letter ) Second Coming.

 

An advent is an arrival. 

 

Advent, for the Christian, is a celebration of three things:

1 – The past birth of Christ.  The arrival of God in the form of man into the world.

2 – The future Second Coming of Christ.  The arrival of Christ to redeem His own and give the final gift of eternal salvation to all who believe.

3 – The anticipation we live in now, in between these two arrivals, and the call on our lives to live in readiness, walk in humility and kindness, and respond to God with our obedience, as a result of a repentant and thankful heart for the gift of Christ.

 

So simple.  So beautiful.  And what an amazing way to teach a young family about what we are celebrating during the Christmas season.  I am so excited to celebrate this Advent season and acknowledge the anticipation of the world that led up to the birth of Christ, and the anticipation of my own heart as I wait for my eternal salvation.

 

Advent can be celebrated in many ways.  It is the heart humbled before God, in waiting, that is important.  Two of the more common Protestant ways of celebrating this season are with a Jesse Tree and with an Advent Calendar.  This year, we’re going with the calendar. 

 

There are so many ways to do an advent calendar.  I will just share with you how we will celebrate this year.  Again, it’s the heart of humility and remembrance and anticipation that is important, whatever your celebration looks like.

 

We will use The Jesus Storybook Bible as our guide, reading one story each day, from Creation all the way to the birth of Christ (on Christmas morning).  I absolutely LOVE this Bible!  It’s a children’s Bible, but I’d be lying if I said it’s never had me in tears before!  This Bible is appropriate for advent readings because included in every Bible story narrative is the way in which the story points to the coming of Christ.  Every Old Testament event leads to the gift of the Savior and God’s “Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love” that caused Him to send for us, His children, a “Rescuer.”

 

 

 

At the beginning of each day we will read the story from this special Bible, and then draw the little gold card out of the pocket on our advent calendar.  Each day is a different activity.  Our activities are not necessarily synched with the reading; they are all fun things to do as a family that excitedly lead up to Christmas day and our celebration of Christ come into the world.  Many of our activities are based around events happening in our own lives and community, so yours will be different, of course.  But this list might help give you a jumping off point if you are celebrating with an advent calendar this season.  Here’s what we’re doing:

 

1 – Give a gift (to a family in need, our church pantry, or local rescue mission)

2 – A special candy for Maddox

3 – Go to my husband’s work Christmas party (a family affair)

4 – Go to the tree farm and pick out our (FIRST EVER!) live Christmas tree

5 – Decorate the tree

6 – Make gingerbread houses

7 – Pick out new tree ornaments (each family member picks one new ornament for 2011)

8 – Give a gift (to a family in need, our church pantry, or local rescue mission)

9 – Go to a live nativity

10 – Go to the local Ranch for an evening of Christmas fun

11 – Electric Safari at the zoo

12 – A special candy for Maddox

13 – Make gingerbread men cookies

14 – Toddler Time at the library

15 – Give a gift (to a family in need, our church pantry, or local rescue mission)

16 – Getaway to the mountains

17 – See a local church Christmas production

18 – Watch a Christmas movie

19 – Deliver gifts to our friends and neighbors

20 – Free family day at the Fine Arts Center

21 – Give a gift (to a family in need, our church pantry, or local rescue mission)

22 – Hot cocoa for dessert

23 – Drive the city to tour Christmas lights

24 – Attend Christmas Eve service with visiting family

 

 

The 25th is not included on the calendar, but we will have our final reading that morning; the birth of Christ, and then celebrate that which we have been anticipating.

 

If you’re thinking of starting your own advent calendar, it’s not too late!  Start the celebration wherever you are, however you can.  It’s always the heart that matters. 

 

 

How do you celebrate Advent?  What are some traditions that you enjoy burying in the hearts of your loved ones during this special season?

We were late.  Again. 

Rushing.  Pulling.  Urging.  Feet stomping.  Voice raising.

Trying to get that new blue jacket on Maddox.  He stands in the middle of the living room.  Lethargic.  Can’t he see we need to move faster?  Lily buckled in.  Blue jacket try again.  One arm in.  Two arms in.  One arm out.  Try again.  Stand still.  Don’t move.  Look at Mama.  We need to hurry!  Zip up.  Unmoving.  Slouchy.  Slow.  Feet trudging to the door.  One foot dragging after the other.  Maddox hurry!

He won’t.

I can’t make him.

He doesn’t understand.

And we are late.  Again.

Later that night, in bed, reading books.  Calming down.  There’s this sweet little book, found at the library, open above our heads.  Snuggling close.  Words spoken into the air.  Words about a little brown-haired boy, unlike my Maddox.  Golden locks brush my cheek.

Little boy, so much depends on… your starship pajamas…

The brown-haired boy, in pajamas, playing with flashlight, helmet and dog.

…that story about llamas…

The brown-haired boy, reading a book.  Llama in a spaceship.

…the way you don’t worry…

The Brown-haired boy building a stack as tall as he can.  Trucks.  Bowls.  Boxes.  Up to the ceiling.  I smile, empathizing.  Seeing the scene having played out so many times with my yellow-haired little boy.

…the way you won’t hurry…

The brown-haired boy, standing still.  Carefully, slowly, placing hat on dog.  And the words pierce me.  Right to the middle.  Memories of the frantic morning come flooding in, swirling around.  Eyes well up.  I wasn’t expecting this.  With the turn of a page I am thrown off-balance.  One sentence brings me to my knees.

Little ones won’t hurry.  It is unnatural.  What do I do when I force him into my world?  My hurried pace.  My rushing and pulling and urging.  Expecting him to be something that I am, but he is not.  Something he was not intended to be.  Is this what I want him to be?

Recently, a friend was describing a co-worker  to my husband and me and said, “It’s like she lives her life always going through a yellow light.  The light changes, she accelerates.  Makes it through just in time, then hits the brakes on the other side.  Jerking around anyone who is in the car with her.”

Shame, like a rough blanket, fell over me.  He didn’t mean to describe me, but as the words escaped his mouth I felt myself exposed in front of them.  I am that woman going through the yellow light.  I have been for as long as I can remember. 

There used to be pride.  I can do it all, all at once.

For the first time in this yellow-light life, there is no pride in hurried tasks.  Meeting deadlines.  Fitting in one last thing.  In place of the pride that once was, there are now three beautiful faces.  One, slightly weathered.  The partner who promised to love me despite me.  Two, slimming down.  Learning.  Watching.  Following.  Becoming.  Speaking what he hears and doing what he sees.  The yellow-haired boy in the new blue jacket.  Three, sparkling eyes.  Brand new.  A woman about-to-be.  Needing a woman who has been.

Who has been what?  Driving through yellow lights?  Jerking around these beautiful three?  Not stopping to see that their pace is slow.  Natural.  Perfectly organic in its own sweet rhythm. 

This was the intention of the Creator.  As my youth pastor used to say, human beings, not human doings.  Eyes lifted to the One with perfect timing.  The One who enables self-controlled living and patient hearts.  The One who wants me to see in my children a perfect example of how to come to Him.

The yellow-light life is disruptive.  Throwing out of alignment all that we were created for.  Clouding the hundreds of simple joys that He gives us when we stop planning.  Stop buying.  Stop pushing.  Stop going.  From one place to the next with no clear end after all the means.  When we stop putting aside all the goodness He puts before us.

The yellow light is intended to bring the car, slowly, to rest.  To waiting.  For the sake of all these beauties riding with me; for the sake of myself, remembering that I am one of His beauties…

I will pray that I will slow.