Getting Ready for Advent – Its Time to Start Preparing.

Let Us Come As Children

Advent this year begins late on December 2nd. It is still over 2 months away but I already have people asking me what the theme will be for blog posts so thought that I would get an early start in focusing all of us on this important season of waiting and preparation. This year’s theme will be: Let Us Wait As Children Wait. If you want to contribute you can sign up to receive ongoing information in the Godspace Writing Community on Facebook or email me at christine@msaimagine.org for more details.

In Luke 18: 16, 17 (NLT) Jesus tells his disciples: “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” (from Biblegateway.com)

I have been thinking a lot about this recently. What does it mean to come as children come? What are the attributes of children that make it possible for them to enter the Kingdom of God when those of us that are adults cannot? Last year, in a post entitled God Created the World By Imagination I wrote:

Childhood is filled with creativity and imagination, a place of mystery and wonder in which kids discover themselves, the world and the God who created it.  For a child every moment is filled with looking, listening and learning.

I love to watch children explore the world. Everything is new. Everything is exciting. Everything is worth noticing. Everything is worth questioning and every smallest pain ache and pain that others experience draws forth compassion and a desire to help. But something happens to squelch all that. Just as our excitement in waiting for the coming of our Saviour is drained by the world around us, so is the excitement and creativity of children. In my previous post I went on to say:

Schools and universities squelch creativity and imagination forcing kids to live in a world of science and technology where we convince then that flowers are made of molecules and rainbows are caused by the refraction of light. Childhood’s vivid purple clouds and yellow skies give way to the real world where clouds are always white and skies are always blue.  In this world of head knowledge compassion gives way to competition and life, we teach them, revolves around buying goods we don’t need and holding jobs we don’t enjoy.

So how do we regain the excitement, imagination and expectation of childhood? How do we regain the ability to wait for the coming of our Saviour with an anticipation that has us standing on tiptoes, asking continually Is it time yet? and maybe even more importantly, how do we maintain that same excitement and expectation in children? One of my most popular posts during Advent is this one on Celebrating Advent With Kids. People are looking for resources – and I think not just to celebrate with their kids but because many of us want to find again that childlike enthusiasm and excitement we once experienced in our faith.

There has been a lot of controversy flying around lately on how we educate our children – Tony Jones’ article Death to Homeschooling. As he suspected and documented, homeschoolers turned out in force. My concern is that in the heat of the argument we miss the point. Children need to be allowed to be children no matter how they are schooled. And Jesus tells us to become like them.

So once again I am offering an invitation to join me during Advent and the weeks preceding it. If you would like to contribute a post for this series leave a comment here or sign up to receive ongoing information in the Godspace Writing Community on Facebook or email me at christine@msaimagine.org for more details. If you know of others who might be interested please send them the link. I hope that this series will provide us with a rich array of viewpoints from around the world so that together we grow in our faith and rediscover some of the wonder and awe of waiting for Christ as children wait.

f you want to contribute you can