It's time!!!!
"God's promised Messiah was a merciful gift of love to a people who needed both mercy and love. He would come to them in all their pain, brokenness, and struggle, and make everything new. They were desperate for this, and the proof of their desperation was perhaps most evident in the fact that they couldn't bring themselves to live as though this promise was real." (Behold the Lamb of God: An Advent Narrative, by Russ Ramsey)
Today is December 1st and is the beginning of our Advent celebration. Well......it should have been the beginning, but the kids and I were so excited that we started early. This is our second year to use the celebration of Advent as a way to entrench ourselves in the beauty of the Christmas story. We are trying to combat the usual craziness accompanying this season that tends to envelop us and push us away from meditating on the real meaning of Christmas. Of course we know the season isn't about decorations or presents, or parties, or programs. But practically speaking all of those things have become so much a part of the way we celebrate this season that if we're not careful they overtake us and at the end of Christmas we find ourselves exhausted and empty instead of peaceful and consumed with the hope that is the Christmas story. Our children are young, and our move to this hemisphere of the world gave us a chance to start fresh. We were blessed with the gift of being able to re-write our Christmas traditions and so we put some thought into what that should look like. Our desire is to use this season to meditate as a family on the beautiful truth of this story and to embrace that hope more fully in our own hearts and lives as well as to share it with others.
So I'm going to fill you in on a few ways we get this done around our house. My mom bought this beautiful Advent Calendar for us and each slot is filled with a family activity for us to do together. Some of them are silly and some a little more creative but the goal is for us to purposefully spend time together as a family.
Along with this we take time as a family each evening to sit down and focus on some part of the Christmas story together. We have several children's books and Bible's to help us and we also use our nativity scenes or ourselves to act out the parts of the story together. Our kids are little so these times are not long and we make them as fun as possible. Our goal is to help our children become more and more familiar with the story. We sing and pray together and try to memorize a short verse or two. I just downloaded this Truth in Tinsel book last night and love it already!
Rob and I are also trying an adult advent study together as well this year. And THIS Andrew Peterson CD is playing constantly in our home. It is a beautiful telling of the story of Christmas from the beginning of the Bible to his coming as a baby told in song. We love it! The advent study we are doing this year was inspired by the musical rendition. We are excited to dig in. You can find it HERE
The reason of course that we spend so much time this month as a family focusing our hearts on this story is because it is true. It's not just a warm fuzzy legend to be made into pretty christmas decorations or written into beautiful songs. It is the true story of how God loved us across all time and eternity and provided a redeemer for us at great cost to Himself. That Jesus in the manger, who was the author of life, gave up his throne to become one of us. He left heaven to be born into squalor and suffering. It is a powerful story of love and hope. It is the beginning of our redemption.
Today is December 1st and is the beginning of our Advent celebration. Well......it should have been the beginning, but the kids and I were so excited that we started early. This is our second year to use the celebration of Advent as a way to entrench ourselves in the beauty of the Christmas story. We are trying to combat the usual craziness accompanying this season that tends to envelop us and push us away from meditating on the real meaning of Christmas. Of course we know the season isn't about decorations or presents, or parties, or programs. But practically speaking all of those things have become so much a part of the way we celebrate this season that if we're not careful they overtake us and at the end of Christmas we find ourselves exhausted and empty instead of peaceful and consumed with the hope that is the Christmas story. Our children are young, and our move to this hemisphere of the world gave us a chance to start fresh. We were blessed with the gift of being able to re-write our Christmas traditions and so we put some thought into what that should look like. Our desire is to use this season to meditate as a family on the beautiful truth of this story and to embrace that hope more fully in our own hearts and lives as well as to share it with others.
So I'm going to fill you in on a few ways we get this done around our house. My mom bought this beautiful Advent Calendar for us and each slot is filled with a family activity for us to do together. Some of them are silly and some a little more creative but the goal is for us to purposefully spend time together as a family.
Along with this we take time as a family each evening to sit down and focus on some part of the Christmas story together. We have several children's books and Bible's to help us and we also use our nativity scenes or ourselves to act out the parts of the story together. Our kids are little so these times are not long and we make them as fun as possible. Our goal is to help our children become more and more familiar with the story. We sing and pray together and try to memorize a short verse or two. I just downloaded this Truth in Tinsel book last night and love it already!
Rob and I are also trying an adult advent study together as well this year. And THIS Andrew Peterson CD is playing constantly in our home. It is a beautiful telling of the story of Christmas from the beginning of the Bible to his coming as a baby told in song. We love it! The advent study we are doing this year was inspired by the musical rendition. We are excited to dig in. You can find it HERE
The reason of course that we spend so much time this month as a family focusing our hearts on this story is because it is true. It's not just a warm fuzzy legend to be made into pretty christmas decorations or written into beautiful songs. It is the true story of how God loved us across all time and eternity and provided a redeemer for us at great cost to Himself. That Jesus in the manger, who was the author of life, gave up his throne to become one of us. He left heaven to be born into squalor and suffering. It is a powerful story of love and hope. It is the beginning of our redemption.
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