Advent Day 1, 2014

 

  

"You are Lord of Creation and Lord of my life. Lord of the land and the seas. 

You are Lord of the heavens before there was time. Lord of all Lords you will be!"

December 1 always seems to come in a rush and catch me by
surprise. Just as soon as the Thanksgiving dishes are all put away, in blow the Christmas bins spilling over with excitement. We started last evening's Advent with the house in total darkness. And then- a single candle lit to show just how much impact it can have on the darkened room, symbolic of God's power to merely speak and illuminate the nothingness. We read about the Creation of all that we know and lit the first candle on the Advent wreath which represent the ways that God reveal Himself to us, through Creation and nature. There are 2 Creation ornaments, 2 small chocolate flowers that we molded, and the start of a Lego creation to build along the month, in the Cross box. We ended by praying about what we had read and teaching them "You are Lord of Creation."

Now that we have gone through our Jesse Tree list for a few years our kids know somewhat what to expect. They showed up to Advent story time with plush kangaroo and snake, knowing it was Creation night.

So in order to preserve an element of surprise we decided to implement a new idea this year- a search for the wandering wise men! We have told them they are not real and this is just for fun, but with our wishes to build anticipation for the coming Christ we will be visited by the wise men too who are also looking everywhere for Jesus. And why would they come to our house? Because we are seeking after Jesus too! As expected, one son is a little hesitant, and one dives in and was up again before 7am searching the house.

After Advent, armed with their candles, they took to the yard to look for any hidden or lost wise men. It was a little funny because they didn't know what they were looking for and the front gate was accidentally left open which gave the appearance of real visitors. All they found tonight was a tiny hat and treasure box but it was enough for them set a lure and trap with the found hat and treasure box. 

"Lost and found". Clever.

This morning there was a note by the trap and a poor, lost wise man and camel found in the kitchen by the coffee maker. We are going to hang a large star up that they will be following, but they will be searching for the baby all month. The boys can't touch them if they find them so as not to knock them off track, but can observe how far they make it each day. We like the creative outlet, the boys like the hunt, and the point is to build anticipation as we are all awaiting the day of celebrating the Lord's gift to us at Christmas.

Day 8: Joseph

Invasion of Bethlehem!  
I'm sure I am going to miss it when these days are over. Every time I turn around my decorations are disrupted or displays tweaked. But instead of getting annoyed I thank God for the opportunity to live with little boys' perspective and mind to view life through, since I did not grow up with that.


This week we played a Bible Trivia game I had as a kid and no matter what the question my youngest shouted, "Joseph!" as the answer. I guess he doesn't know yet that the pat answer is "Jesus". Since there is a significant Joseph in the Old Testament and New Testament I guess he's heard that name a lot and assumed it was a safe answer. Either way, it was funny every time.

Day 8: Joseph's Coat of Many Colors

Tonight was the second Sunday of December so at dinner we lit the second candle of our Advent wreath which symbolizes the second form of revelation: the Law, which will be our story for tomorrow. Through the Law God revealed to His people more about who He is, what His will is for His children, and His standards of righteousness. We often think of laws as boring or hindering but I'm fascinated as how the Isrealites wept, celebrated, and offered thanks at the reading of the Law! They listened to the Law read aloud for hours and sang praise to God for it! What a different perspective they had and I will discuss this week with the kids how the Law is perfect and makes us wise as written in Proverbs. I got candlesticks to fit my wreath but bought a cranberry color rather than the traditional purple and white. We light a 5th candle at our Christmas dinner, the 4 red and this white candle at the center of our wreath.

There is a booklet to go along with the symbols on this wreath, but we have also assigned our own symbolism for each candle. These kinds of wreath/booklet sets with daily readings are a great, simple way to add to your Advent teaching.

In the box we gave one paper and one felt ornament and for the chocolate I had a Thanksgiving mold with cornucopias so we used these to represent the time of feasting and storing before the great famine during Joseph's rule. When I can I like to use a different symbol than what is on the ornament so it's another visual element to remember or tell part of the story.

If you are following along with the Bible in Stories - pages 78-81, summarize 82-99
If using the Bible or another Bible reader - summarize Genesis 37-46

Day 7: Jacob

Our oldest was enjoying the decoder pin so he made the message of J-A-C-O-B for tonight and put it in the countdown box. Earlier he made us an I LOVE YOU note so I'm not going to put the decoder pin away just yet....

Day 7: Jacob 
There are many stories in our book about the life of Jacob, so we summarized about his twin birth and the names of he and his slightly older brother, the eventual trading of his birthright for soup, Jacob's deceiving his father to receive the blessing, and his fleeing into the desert from his brother. During that time of hiding God appeared to him in a dream and promised to protect him if he returned to his father's land. Jacob then meets Rachel and Leah and has 12 sons who become the 12 tribes of Israel that God would bless and divide. It's on a staircase like this he witnessed angels going up and down to earth in his dream.

They got more parts for the second Lego vehicle in the pack. They crowded around my phone to look at the instructions. A smartphone and 2-day shipping really helped this part of Advent this year! While they figured this out, Donnie and I sang all the verses of "O Come All Ye Faithful" and practiced the 4 year olds song to sing on stage at Church tomorrow.

If you are following along with the Bible in Stories - pages 46-47, summarize through 63
If using the Bible or another Bible reader - summarize Genesis 25-30
"O Come, All Ye Faithful"

Day 3: The Flood

Day 3: Today's story is Noah, the worldwide flood, God's salvation of Noah and his family, and God's promise not to destroy the earth by flood again. Our 7 year old said the was the 56th time he had heard this tale, so we quizzed him over dinner and then proceeded to #57. I can understand his point since his Bible reader and worksheet for today happened to also fall on Noah!

We are working through the first 8 main events of the Old Testament that my husband teaches as part of his college Bible class, summarized as: (4 events) Creation, Fall, Flood, Nations, and (4 people) Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. The kids are asked to memorize this order and at the and of Advent they are asked as best as possible to put all of the ornaments in order. On Christmas day we review all of these events, asking them for details, and to place the ornaments in order. If you are doing this plan or something similar, I promise you will be surprised and blessed by how much they can remember!

There are two paper ornaments from our set about Noah and the felt one I made. For chocolates, they get a sweet pair of lambs to represent the animals on the Ark.


If you are following along with the Bible in Stories - pages 12-15
If using the Bible or another Bible reader - Genesis 6-9
"Away in a Manger" found in back of BIS Volume II (ii) or hymnal

Advent: Day 2

Day 2: The story of Adam and Eve and the Fall in the Garden

Today we read the story of the first sin in the Garden of Eden, the saddest of days. Our 7 year old read the story tonight with all the voices- Eve, the snake, Adam, God. Inside the countdown box there was a perplexing broken ornament. You never know where an object lesson will be found in my husband's mind. Any guesses to how this ties in?

Old Yosemite Sam, missing a hand, represented Adam grasping the forbidden fruit and as a consequence is beginning to die, separated now from the Tree of Life. We don't know how long Adam would have lived but he was no longer able to eat from this Tree every day. To represent this death we had a chocolate skull. The tree ornament with the snake I made is pictured in Day 1.

I wanted to incorporate more time of worship this year so I am going to (weakly) play a song on the piano or sing every night at the end. I think we will sing the same song for 2 or 3 nights, working through some Christmas related hymns and thinking of classic songs that are often sung without printed lyrics like the Doxology and Amazing Grace. Tonight we ended with Away in a Manger and will continue in hopes that these songs will be familiar by Christmas when we go to Christmas song sing-along services. They grabbed some instruments and tried to sing along.

If you are following along with the Bible in Stories - pages 6-9
If using the Bible or another Bible reader - Genesis 3
"Away in a Manger" found in back of BIS Volume II (ii) or hymnal