Each week for Advent we will be posting activities that you can do individually or as a family by John Lewis from his book, Finding the Treasure in Christmas: A Guide to celebrating Advent for Families —
Special Activities for the 1st Week of Advent:
- Make/buy your Advent wreath. The “evergreen” symbolizes eternal life, and the circle,
- His never-ending love.
- Put up the tree. As this tree came from nature, Christ came from His natural place in Heaven to be with us and bring us new life. (If you have an artificial tree, use your imagination.)
- Read a suggested story from the New Guideposts’ Christmas Treasury, found in Appendix II.
- Watch options: Charlie Brown Christmas (Theme: Jesus is like the little green tree); How The Grinch Stole Christmas (Theme: The light and life of Christmas are not found in stuff but in the heart).
Read:
- Start by lighting the first Advent candle, which is the “Prophecy Candle.”
- Read Isaiah 9:2 and Isaiah 11:1. These verses are prophecies, messages given to God’s people long before Jesus was born. Do you notice how Isaiah 9:2 says, “. . . those walking in darkness will see a great light?” As we light the first candle, we are reminded that God brings light and life to the world. These prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus, as we read in John 1:4: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of us all.”
Reflect:
Every year, our family’s first Advent tradition is to cut down our tree, put it up in our house, and decorate it with lights. But where did this tradition come from? Legend has it that centuries ago, on a Christmas Eve night, Martin Luther looked up at the forest trees with the moon and stars behind them. Inspired by this beautiful scene, he introduced the tradition of the Christmas tree and candles (this, of course, was before the invention of electric lights). The candles stood for Jesus, the light of the world. The green pine tree, already a recognized symbol of life in ancient Druid festivals, became a symbol for Christ’s abundant and everlasting life.
The rich greenness of a Christmas tree stands in bold contrast to the stark landscape of Jesus’ homeland in Israel. The stars over ancient Bethlehem shone brightly in the countryside darkness. Jesus came as light and life, and what a welcome gift He was and is! As the Apostle John reminds us in his Gospel’s introduction of Jesus (John 1:4), Jesus is all about light and life.
“Welcome, Christmas, bring your light:” set in the context of the true meaning of Christmas, this quote from, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” perfectly sums up our wish for Advent.
Do/Discuss:
- Hang up inside/outside lights. When it becomes dark, shut off all the house lights. Sit in darkness for a moment, and then plug in your lights. What is an example of how Jesus brought light to the world when He was on Earth.
- How has He brought light and life to you and to our family this year? (e.g., provision for our needs, wisdom, understanding, direction, relationships, new things, etc.)
Sing:
“Hark the Herald Angels Sing” (especially verse 3, “Lightand lifeto all He brings…”)
Pray:
Lord, Your light is greater than our darkness and shows us the way. Your life is greater than what our world and its ways could ever offer us. Where we are still living in shadows, shine brightly this Christmas season. Where we thirst for Your life, keep us expectant and eager. May our lights and tree remind us how You are ready to meet us with Your light and life. Amen.
John Lewis lives in Tacoma, Washington and is a father of three grown children and husband of one Christmas-loving wife. He is the director of Kingdom Story Ministries and passionate about seeing the next generation of Jesus followers grow and stay faithful over their life time. Building meaningful and enduring traditions during the Advent season, the month before Christmas, was certainly one way their kids found long term faith roots. Those 15 years of trial and error, singing carols and squirming in their seats, reading and sharing, putting up the tree, lights, ornaments and star one week at a time, they were well worth the effort. Though far from perfect, we offer to you our flexible approach and variety of ideas for developing Christ centered Christmas traditions. May your kids, year after year, grow anticipate the faith element of Christmas alongside all the fun of the season; may their roots run long and deep for the challenging life they have ahead of them.
Yesterday someone recommended Walter Brueggemann”s Celebrating Abundance: An Advent Devotional. Now I am a sucker for anything by Brueggemann so I was hooked. Unfortunately it is currently not available here in the U.S. as a book but I did download the kindle version and am looking forward to beginning reading it as Tom and I travel to Pennsylvania this weekend.
Also the suggestion jogged my memory. I am a very keen Walter Brueggemann fan and last year I bought a copy of Awed To Heaven Rooted in Earth, A Collection of Poems by Walter Brueggemann.
It is a beautiful collection of poetry. This Advent prayer was my constant companion during the first week of Advent last year. The words Give us the grace and the impatience to wait for your coming to the bottom of our toes, are particularly meaningful to me as I prepare for Advent this year.
In our secret yearnings
we wait for your coming,
and in our grinding despair
we doubt that you will.
And in this privileged place
we are surrounded by witnesses who yearn more than do we
and by those who despair more deeply than do we.
Look upon your church and its pastors
in this season of hope
which runs so quickly to fatigue
and this season of yearning
which becomes so easily quarrelsome.
Give us the grace and the impatience
to wait for your coming to the bottom of our toes,
to the edge of our finger tips.
We do not want our several worlds to end.
Come in your poer
and come in your weakness
in any case and make all things new.
Amen.
During Advent, each week John Lewis will be providing a post with activities that you can do individually or together with your family. As you begin to prepare for the advent season, read this great post by John on how to make it meaningful —
Putting up lights or stockings, baking cookies, and wrapping presents may be JOY-FILLED traditions your family already practices. TRADITIONS can help connect these familiar practices and symbols of the Christmas story to your family’s heritage, values, faith and personality. Year after year, these require a higher degree of intentionality. While many of us may not have grown up with traditions like that, their BLESSINGS ae much worth the effort and planning! Where do we start? The most enduring FAITH traditions (Lord’s Supper, Baptism, Weddings) are practiced in community. So, we know that relying on others is a tried and true place to start. Carissa and I offer below not a formula but some steps that might help your family create and celebrate meaningful family CHRISTMAS traditions.
Step #1: Decide to do it
Let’s face it. There are many obstacles during the holidays that must be overcome to achieve meaningful and faith filled Christmas traditions: busyness, distraction, guilt, and added Christmas duties during the month. So:
- Gather your family to discuss the benefits of traditions together (family bonding and identity, passing down values and faith, etc.). If you decide together, you will set yourself up for success.
- Decide as parents and as a family that this is important. Declare that with God’s help, you will start some small but meaningful traditions. Ironically, the best time to start is when your kids are ‘2 or S, when you are still scrambling and the kids seem too young to understand much. They will pick up more than we realize.
- Pray for God’s help and commit this to God together. It’s not about you being responsible for their success!
Step #2: Start with brainstorming
- Identify any traditions for your families of origin that you want to continue or adapt (putting up the tree/lights, e.g.)? What does your family already love to do together during Christmas?
- Identify some family values, Christmas stories, and biblical themes you want to highlight this Christmas season (giving, serving, God as light, e.g.).
- Identify your family’s passions, practices, and personality. What do you already like to do? (love for baking, e.g.) These might contribute ideas to adapting old Christmas traditions or starting new ones.
Step #3: Find some resources
- Resources that identify the original story, legend, meaning behind the symbols and traditions of Christmas.
- Book or guide that you can use, learn from, or adapt for building meaningful long term traditions (I could not easily find one that I liked that would suit this purpose, so I did my own.)
- Ask for help from others who either already practice holiday traditions, or who might be willing to try new traditions with you-together in person and/ or through technology.
Step #4: Make your plan
- Create your tradition as a couple and whenever possible, as a whole family. Be specific but not rigid about the what, when, where and how of practicing your traditions. If need be, mark the family calendar.
- Do the traditions fit both your family and the hopes you have for passing on values and faith?
- Start small. Make the plan doable. It’s better to do something for five minutes than try to do too much or do nothing at all. Remember, you are starting year after year traditions.
Step #5: Be flexible
- Anticipate the unexpected. Respond to what comes up spontaneously.
- Avoid guilt. When it doesn’t go as well or as often as you expected, resist being disappointed.
- Let these traditions grow and develop over the years. Guard the core purpose of you traditions but adapt them to the changing age, energy, personality and circumstances of your growing family.
John Lewis lives in Tacoma, Washington and is a father of three grown children and husband of one Christmas-loving wife. He is the director of Kingdom Story Ministries and passionate about seeing the next generation of Jesus followers grow and stay faithful over their life time. Building meaningful and enduring traditions during the Advent season, the month before Christmas, was certainly one way their kids found long term faith roots. Those 15 years of trial and error, singing carols and squirming in their seats, reading and sharing, putting up the tree, lights, ornaments and star one week at a time, they were well worth the effort. Though far from perfect, we offer to you our flexible approach and variety of ideas for developing Christ centered Christmas traditions. May your kids, year after year, grow anticipate the faith element of Christmas alongside all the fun of the season; may their roots run long and deep for the challenging life they have ahead of them.
by Christine Sine
Advent is always a good time for me to pull out some of the photos and picture books I have of the gospel stories and especially of the story of Christ’s birth. We live in such a world of images that constantly bombard us with ungodly messages and we need those that provide a Godly perspective to counteract them. It doesn’t seem right that kids should have all the fun either and though some of these books are ostensibly written for children I think that they are just as surely written for adults.
This year I have had fun adding to my collection and still have several on my wish list that have been recommended by my Facebook friends or that I have come across in my internet searches. I particularly love books that help me to see the story from a different perspective – either through the eyes of another culture or another viewpoint. I posted my request on Facebook and received several additions to my original list that will probably et me broke before Christmas but then I never can resist another good book.
A Savior Is Born: Rocks Tell the Story of Christmas by Patti Rokus. This is my favorite addition this year. The beautifully crafted scenes of the story of the birth of Christ are inspiring. There is little commentary, just Bible quotes but the pictures tell their own story. I think this is a great addition for anyone’s library.
The Glorious Impossible by Madeleine L’Engle. This book, with its wonderful illustrations of frescoes by Giotto is a magnificent book to reflect on at any season of the year but particularly at Christmas. Madeleine’s commentary adds a richness to the book that I appreciate rereading every year. It takes us all the way through the New Testament from the coming of Gabriel to Mary to to Pentecost.
A Northern Nativity by Willian Kurelek. I love the way Kurelek depicts the Holy Family as Eskimos and First Nations people then follows the story across the frontiers of Canada in the early 1900s which was his childhood. A beautiful heartwarming and informative perspective.
Night Visions: Searching The Shadows of Advent and Christmas by Jan Richardson I love Jan Richardson’s images and this one of Advent is stunning
Children of God Storybook Bible by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. This is my most recent acquisition. Desmond Tutu recruited artists from around the world to depict stories from both Old and New Testament. Both beautifully written and beautifully illustrated.
The Night Before Christmas in Africa by Jesse Foster, Hannah Foster and Carroll Foster. I have not read this (it is on my wish list for next year, but love the look of the story and the illustrations. Maybe it is because I too grew up with Christmas in summer and I couldn’t find a good Australian Christmas story that I thought was worth adding to this list.
Jesus Was A Refugee by Andrew McDonough. Again I have not read this but it was recommended by Godspace author Keren Dibbens-Wyatt. “vivid and visual storytelling takes us beyond the joy of the Christmas story to the danger and disorientation of Jesus’ early years. It reminds us of the realities which refugees continue to experience in our world. It should be told alongside the traditional Nativity each year.” (from Amazon review. McDonough is an Australian which means this must be added it to my wishlist too!
The Nativity by Julie Vivas This was recommended by my Facebook friend Taeler Morgan. I have not read it but she says it is one of her favorites.
The Living Nativity by David and Helen Haidle. Another that I have not read but recommended by Jane Bartlett-Hessdorfer. It certainly seems to be worth adding to my list.
Something is Coming to Our World: How A Backyard Bird Sees Christmas recommended by the author Cathy Lawton. She says it combines creation care, wonder in nature and the Nativity story. The description says “For children and for adults who want to be more child-at-heart and wonder-filled during Advent and Christmas.” which is enough to get me hooked.
Amazing Peace by Maya Angelou.I fell in love with this one when I read the description and because Maya Angelou wrote it, but have not read it. I have added it to my wish list. “Angelou’s beautiful, moving, and beloved poem, which she first read at the 2005 White House tree-lighting ceremony, now comes alive as a fully illustrated children’s book, celebrating the promise of peace in the holiday season. In this simple story, a family joins with their community—rich and poor, black and white, Christian, Muslim, and Jew—to celebrate the holidays.”
Celebration Song: A Poem by James Berry. This one is written from a Caribbean perspective and having worked in Jamaica several times it intrigued me and brought back memories of the wonderful music and art of that country. I can tell you my wish list just gets longer and longer.
So what have I left off the list – what are your favorite images of the Christmas story? Which culture do they come from and why do they resonate with you?
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by Christine Sine
For the Celts songs, poems and epic sagas were an intrinsic part of their everyday life. They carried deep spiritual meanings and sometimes encouragement into the reality and often harshness of life.
This quote from my readings in Celtic Advent a couple of days ago has really resonated in my mind this week. David Cole goes on to remind us that
In Luke 1 we find Mary using this same form of expression when she is with Elizabeth. She glorifies God with song because of who God is, what God has done within her and what God will do through her. This song, known as the Magnificat, is Mary’s expression of praise to God in the way which seems, both from Hebraic and Celtic/AngloSaxon culture to be a most natural way to express our innermost senses and feelings.
As I read David’s words I realized that it was time to set up my sacred space for Advent and Christmas so pulled out this beautiful canvas photo of the Magnificat given to me by my good friend Tom Balke. He took the photo on a visit to maize a few years ago,
As I gazed at the photo this morning several images came to mind.
- First I was reminded of the many friends and relatives who are expecting at this time. I visualized each of them and their babies and offered a prayer and a song of praise to God for them. As I did so I felt a special sense of connection not just to them but to Mary and Elizabeth and their own unborn babies whom we remember at this time. I felt the joy of God rejoicing not just at the coming of these babies but of all the babies in our world.
- Second I was reminded of all the songs and poems that are within me. Some of them have already been birthed and shared on this blog, others are still growing within the womb of my soul, that quiet and sometimes dark place where I feel embraced by the comforting presence of God which makes it possible for me to give birth at the right season.
I was also reminded of this beautiful icon I found several years ago (but have never been able to trace down since). This image too speaks to me of the wonder of this season of Advent (already started for those of us who are celebrating the 40 days of Celtic Advent. It speaks not only of the hope and promise of the babies growing in both Elizabeth’s and Mary’s wombs but of the hope and promise of what God is growing within all of us.
Icon Mary and Elizabeth – source unknown
What Is You Response?
Take a few minutes to meditate on one of these images of Mary and Elizabeth.
Are there women that you know who are pregnant at this season? What are the hopes and promises that come to you as you pray for them? Perhaps you would like to copy this image as I did this morning and send it to them to let them know you are praying for them and their unborn child or children. Share with them the joy you are feeling
Think about Mary and Elizabeth and the children in their wombs. Look at the Taize image and focus on the chidden in Mary and Elizabeth. Read through the Magnificat which in The Message begins I am bursting with God-news. As you meditate on them and their unborn children today, what is the hope and promise, the God-news, that rejoices your heart as Mary’s heart rejoices in this song ?
What are the unborn prayers, songs and creative work that you sense is growing within you but is still to be birthed? All of us have unborn hopes for the future, creative seeds that have been planted within us but are still to be born. Many of them are inspired by the Spirit of God. Think about those seeds you know have been planted. Let your soul (and maybe your body) sing and dance for joy at what God has planted and will one day give birth to in you.
Is there another response God is asking of you at this time? Pull out your journal and write it down or respond with a song, a prayer or by creating an image.
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FREE RESOURCES
Advent in a Jar – Free Download!
This is a fun activity to do with kids that provides a context in which to talk to them about Advent and the coming of Christ. Also great for adults! This is a downloadable packet that will walk you through the steps of creating your own advent jar and printable “sticks” to cut out and use that have a variety of activities on them for your family to enjoy as you prepare for the nativity of Jesus.
Color Your Way Through Advent – Free Download!
by Christine Sine
The prayer above is one of the first that I ever wrote and I thought that I had lost it. Yesterday, as I was browsing through some old files, I found it again, and reading through it thought that it was very appropriate for this weekend – a good prayer to say goodbye to the old year of the liturgical calendar and hello to the new. On this weekend, we don’t just welcome Christ as King but we welcome the Holy Spirit who makes it possible for all of us to live as Christ did – a servant king who served rather than dominating, who walked amongst us, rather than sitting on a distant throne.
I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.
More resources and prayers for Christ the King Sunday HERE
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