Have you
ever prepared for Christmas through Advent? It is a time of expectant waiting
and preparation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus. The term comes from
the Latin word adventus, meaning "coming." Typically, Advent
begins on December 1 and counts down until December 25th. Some families build up to Christmas starting
on the first Sunday after Thanksgiving, but no matter when you start, I highly
recommend that you involve your family in an advent tradition. In our times
today, Christmas has become so secularized that the hope of the Christian
celebration, Jesus, is put on the back burner.
I have two
favorite ways to build up to Christmas: The 12 Days Until Christmas, A Sacred Christmas Through Song and Word and
creating a Jesse Tree. The first one is
on my website. I release one Scripture and one small portion of a holy song and
send an email reminder to those who care to receive it. It begins on December 13th and ends
on December 24th. It’s such a
great reminder to be in the Word and to give praise to our Savior through the
Word and song. Holy and traditional Christmas songs are an inspiration and give
me focus.
The Jesse
Tree is an old tradition based on Jesse, the father of David, and the genealogy
of our Lord Jesus Christ. There are many websites and books that help create a
Jesse Tree with specific ornaments for each day in Advent and the Bible story
to match. It’s an excellent way to teach children the life of Jesus. I used the
tradition ornaments in paper cut-out format the last two years, but this year I
am going to use the format of the Jesus Storybook Bible. It’s amazing!
The Jesus Storybook Bible,
written by Sally Lloyd-Jones and beautifully illustrated by Jago offers the
perfect advent tree framework. They have put together an artful path through
the Bible that shows how Jesus IS the story of the Bible. On their
website, they have suggestions for using the Jesus Storybook Bible for advent
and then I was hooked. Tomorrow is
December 1st and my grandbabies and I are going to hang the first
“ornament” (an image from the Jesus
Storybook Bible printed, cut into a
circle and laminated) on a metallic wall tree in my home. For 25 days, we
will continue the process beginning with Creation and ending with Jesus in the
manger. I highly recommend a day-by-day
expectation process such a Advent and Jesse Trees to help us stay grounded in
Who we worship.
I also heard a great interview with Phil Vischer, the creator of Veggie Tales
and now Buck Denver Asks What is the Bible? He also highly recommends building
up to Christmas and grounding our children in the spiritual intention. They are saturated with the secular, material
Christmas, but Phil Vischer, in his very creative style has designed a specific episode of his Buck Denver series to
discuss the sacred meaning of Christmas.
It doesn’t matter what you use to prepare yourself or your children, the
key word is to prepare. Spending less time shopping and more time in the Word
may be just the gift of peace we all need.
May the Lord of grace and peace grant you and
your family a very special and holy Christmas season.
Prayerfully dependent,
K
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