Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Take time to read the Christmas story today.  (Either from a story book or the Bible. We had our 1st grader read Christmas in the Manger to us this morning.)  Remind yourselves of the things you’ve learned during Advent.  Sing some Christmas songs and enjoy being together as a family.

Praise God for this incomprehensible gift of love towards us!  The Baby Jesus, God with us, came for the sole purpose of saving us from our sins and restoring our relationship with God.  Merry Christmas!!!

It’s CHRISTMAS time!!!!!!!  It’s hard to believe that Christmas is this week.  I’m not ready… can we have 5, maybe 6, weeks of Advent?  I haven’t done enough anticipating.

Okay, I’m back to reality. Now everyone is done with school and the traveling starts.  We will have family come and stay with us… and I’m excited!  Our activities are mostly done and I’m hoping to spend a little more time with my family this week getting ready for the coming of the Christ child.

Here is the devotion for this 4th week of Advent:

(Light all four of the colored candles, three purple and one pink.)  As you light the previous candles, have your family review what each candle stands for and see if they can tell you something of significance about that candle.

The fourth week’s candle is the Angels’ candle.

Read Luke 8:14-20 as a family.

(Depending on your children’s ages, you could also look at Luke 1, Matthew 1:18-24 and Matthew 2:13-23.  If your children are younger, please read these passages for yourself and marvel at the amazing work of God that first Christmas.)

This fourth candle reminds us of the angels and the hope we have in Christ.  When we light it, we anticipate Christ’s second coming.  We remember His first coming… a helpless baby – God of the universe, humbling Himself to conquer sin and death, save mankind and restore our relationship with Him.  Now we anticipate when He will come again… riding on the clouds – with a loud command and the trumpet call of God to raise the dead and judge all (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

We are commanded in Scripture to be ready because we do not know when this will happen… except that it will happen suddenly. (Check out Matthew 24:36-44.)

How do you keep yourself ready so you are not caught unawares?  One way to do that is to make Jesus the most important and exciting thing we talk about.  So, start talking about how awesome He is with your kids.  In my life I have found that when it comes to Jesus (or even a friend or family member) the more I talk about how incredible I think He is and the amazing things He has done or taught me, the more I fall in love with Him and anticipate Him coming back.

So, talk with your family about what you love about Jesus.  (The easy answer is to say that He died for your sins… but why is that so important to you?)  Ask for explanation.  Your kids may not be able to articulate their underlying motivations, and that’s okay!  Just don’t let it stop when they’ve answered the question.  Use it as a jumping off point to start a conversation.  Enjoy hearing what your kids love about your Savior… I know they will love hearing why you love Him so much.

Merry Christmas!!

As we begin this third week of Advent, many of us have Christmas parties, school projects, class parties, teachers’ gifts, baking, shopping, etc., etc. on our list of to-do’s. I know I am looking forward to a break from school where my daughter will be home all day long!  We can really get into more Christmas preparations and spending lots and lots of time as a family.  Celebrating Advent has been a really good time to not let us forget that we are to be preparing for the coming of the Christ child, not just a bunch of parties.  I have enjoyed our times of singing as a family as well as the great discussions I’ve had with my daughter.

Here is this week’s devotion:

(Light the first and second purple candles and now also light the pink candle.)  On this third week of Advent, we also light the Shepherd’s candle.

Read Luke 2:8-20.

When we light this third candle, we understand that, like the shepherds, we can come to Christ, believing He is who He says He is, and tell everyone of the things He has done.  After being told by angels what had happened, then seeing it for themselves, the shepherds could not contain themselves.  They went around telling everyone what they had seen and what they now knew.

Sing “Angels We Have Heard on High” as a family.

My thoughts on shepherds…
This evening, I had the privilege of attending a huge Christmas production at a church in Tucson.  They had a live nativity that was put together as a choir beautifully sang about Emmanuel, God with us, and worshiping Christ the King.  It was incredibly moving, but as I was driving home, I was pondering why it moved me so much.  Was it just the music?  I know that have a soft spot for good choral music.  Then I started thinking about the shepherds.  Much like choosing the lowliest of towns to have the King of Kings enter the world (see last week’s post), God also chose some of the lowliest people to welcome His Son.  I pictured in my head this ragamuffin group of stinky sheep-herders sitting around picking their teeth, listening to the bleating of sheep and each other’s snores when God’s messenger appears to them and gives them the calling of a lifetime.  “Go to Bethlehem, find a baby wrapped in rags, in a feeding trough, in an animal shelter.  Seriously.  This baby is God’s Son, the Messiah, Christ the Lord.”  Then the most amazing choir ever heard bursts from the heavens singing the glory of God.  This is the kind of calling you do not ignore, so they get up and go to Bethlehem and check it out.  They discover it’s all true and they go and praise God, giving Him glory, telling everyone what they had seen and heard.  They were a little excited… and who wouldn’t be in that situation???

Then I had this thought:  The first people called to worship Christ the Messiah were a bunch of stinky animal herders.  In order to obey their calling, the lowly came and made themselves lower by bowing to a baby… a BABY!! lying in the dirty feeding trough of an animal.  And then they went out telling people how awesome God is!  There was no Pharisaical attitude of being the ones called.  No! This was about God, come in human form, fulfilling the promises He had been making for centuries.  I was reminded of a prayer that a dear friend and mentor recently wrote:

O my God, Your word fulfill.
I surrender.  Do as You will.
Break what must be broken.
Kill what needs to die.
Be my Resurrection and my Life.
I go low, beneath You hand.
Kneeling is the only way to stand.
I am Yours.

As God calls us in our own lives, how do we respond?  Do we respond my making ourselves low?  Or do we demand of God “What’s in it for me?”  Do we recognize our own stinky, sheep-herderness and yet make ourselves low under God’s humble throne?  Jesus didn’t come with trumpet fanfare to regally ascend to an ornate throne of earthly power and wealth and might.  He came humbly to a carpenter family, to an animal-trough throne in a rinky-dink town, to a bunch of stinky shepherds as a completely helpless baby… and He calls us to humble ourselves and follow Him.

THIS is why I love Christmas.

I hope everyone had a full and fun week of celebrating Advent with their families.  To be honest, we didn’t get to all of the activities on the Advent Calendar, but I’m not giving up!  We’ll just pick back up this week with our activities.  I have to remember that it’s not about making sure all the boxes are checked, but about spending time with my family preparing for the coming of Christ.

Here is the devotional for this week (the second Sunday of Advent):

(Light the first purple candle again, and then also the second purple candle.) This week we light the second candle, the Bethlehem candle.  This points to preparations being made for the coming of Christ.  Although there was no room for Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem (Jesus was born in a stable), it was just what God had planned.  He orchestrated Mary and Joseph needing to travel to Bethlehem for the census at just the right time so that the prophecies about Jesus would be fulfilled.

Read Micah 5:2-5.

Bethlehem doesn’t seem like a place where the King of Kings should be born.  It was small and not very profitable.  It was home to one of the smallest clans of Judah.  But, it was in the humblest of places that God chose to begin the most amazing thing in history!

As we worship our King who humbled Himself so hugely to restore our relationship with Him, let us hold on with desperation to the grace He gives us and approach His throne and His manger with confidence in His love.

Sing “O Little Town of Bethlehem” together.

Here is a great little article on Jesus, our Shepherd-King, by Charles Spurgeon.

One of the families in our church sent me some pictures of what they are doing as this year for Advent.  (Thanks so much!)

Here is their Advent Wreath:

Here is their Advent Countdown Calendar:

Here are some books that they like to use as a family:

“Who is Coming to Our House?” by Joseph Slate & Ashley Wolff

“Christmas in the Manger” by Nola Buck & Felicia Bond

“My Christmas Gift to Jesus” by Dandi Daley Mackall & Rachael O’Neill

“Getting Ready for Christmas” by Yolanda Browne & Patrick Girouard

I’d love to hear how the Advent celebrations are going in your family! Send pictures or post comments!  I pray that you and your family will be blessed and transformed as you prepare for Jesus’ birth.