“The
world knows Christ is born, oh; the King of love has come,
And our hearts will be His throne.” –
from “Shining”, Sanctus Real
Many
have asked me to share how our family celebrates this month of countdown until
Christmas and I am hoping time permits me to keep up a journal of our journey (probably in chunks as I cannot miss family time to blog or I would be missing out on my purpose!)
As we consider and evaluate American and Christian traditions sometimes our
method is to throw them all out and then choose what to re-introduce. Or to
slowly weed out what familiar things can smother the time we wish for for more
meaningful teaching. But over the past 5 years we feel we have created some new
familiar traditions that focus on the faith that is now inseparable from my
husband and I. And the kids are begging the other 11 months of the year for
them to return.
Each
December we see it as a great opportunity to teach through the entire history
of God’s salvation for all peoples. This spawned from the popular idea of the
Jesse tree, which focuses on the major people leading up to Jesus, but we added
to that other significant events. Part Jesse Tree, part Perspectives course,
part my husband is a Salvation History doctoral student, so...spillover from
his homework.
This
time around Thanksgiving is pull-it-all-together time. I have made and bought
ornaments in the past years so they are ready to go (once I find them!), but each year we reflect
on any pieces that are still missing. This year I want to incorporate more
worship into our time. So after we read the story, hang the ornament, open the
trinket or chocolate, we will end with prayer and a Christmas hymn. You cannot
avoid knowing all the Jingle Bells and Santa songs, but the beautiful, rich
words of the old hymns I do not want to be lost.
“In
the Christian story God descends to reascend. He comes down; down from the
heights of absolute being into time and space, down…to the very roots and
sea-bed of the Nature He has created. But
He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined world up with Him.”
–from “Miracles”, C. S. Lewis.
Parenting
is a humbling experience. I cannot fear messing up this whole thing but must
take each day at a time, love my kids, give them my time, and ask God for help
(mostly in the form of patience). Teaching God’s Word is also humbling,
especially as I stumble through with limited knowledge of all His mysteries.
But the two highlighted thoughts above pierced me today- He came down to bring
the whole ruined world up with Him. That is life-altering and worth my thoughtful efforts to teach!
And Can they see my heart is His throne and will they make it theirs?
Pick what works for you and join me in this venture. Please share any favorite Christ-centered traditions that you have!
I am making these for a friend to go along with Ann Voskamp's beautiful Jesse Tree list. I find such satisfaction out of decorating these 3" circles of inexpensive felt. Incorporating meaning even with the colors of fabric and thread have become my new goal.
The tedious but relaxing task of melting, pouring, freezing and organizing daily chocolates for the month of stories. Two successes today- we found a dark chocolate that we all like, and melting vegan chips worked great, for my little one with limited dairy!
This is my system of categorizing the candy and its symbolism for every story.
