What were, or are your Christmas season traditions? Do they focus around a meal, or a destination, or people, or cherished objects, or ….? One of my favorite traditions is the advent calendar. It begins on the first day of Dec. and goes till Christmas Eve (some go to Christmas day). Growing up, my parents would purchase a new one each year. It had “flaps” for each day that you could pull open. It hung on the wall and my siblings and I would take turns each morning opening the numbered flap for that day. Behind the flap would be a picture of something “Christmasy”. It was fun to see each new picture as we counted down the days till Christmas. I’d get especially excited each fifth day when it would be my turn to open the flap.
Jodel (my wife) made a long wooden Advent Calendar for our family with cubes in a row each covered by a cloth flap with each date’s number on it that buttoned at the top. It sat (and sits each Advent) on our mantle or countertop. Each cubicle has a little figurine inside of a toy horse, or an angel, or a teddy bear, or a shepherd, or some Christmas themed object with the last one being the manger. Our children would have the same excitement I had as they would daily unbutton the flap and see the figure inside. While each Advent calendar I enjoyed as a child were always new, it was wonderful to watch our children try to “out guess” each other seeing if they remembered which figurine was behind each date’s flap.
The Advent calendar was a major part of our Christmas season. Both as a child and with my own family. It helps us think on the theme of Christmas; it’s joys, and anticipation, and preparation, and blessings, and wonder. It wasn’t Christmas itself, but it very much set the atmosphere and increased the experience of Christmas Day. It gave us a “reference point” that we journeyed toward together, talking through the Christmas story. Advent seems to “augment” Christmas, allowing its rich, deep meaning to fill our hearts even more fully.
The Advent season emphasizes the comings of the Christ (yes, plural). Whose birth we prepare to celebrate each Dec. 25th, who comes continually in Word and Spirit, and whose return in final victory we anticipate. Each year Advent calls and invites the community of faith to prepare for, be alert of, and lean into the opportunities for charity that define and undergird the season reflecting the selflessness and gracious gift that is the Christ child.
Christmas’ foundation of grace and sacrifice expressed at the manger invites us all to remember the belovedness of each and all. At a time of such divisiveness in our culture, here are two full seasons (Advent and Christmas) of opportunity for the church to lead the way in demonstrating what it means to love your neighbor, to reach out to the Least, the Lost, and the Left Out in ways that touch lives and change hearts, and build bridges of understanding and community.
Jodel and I want to let you all know what a wonderful blessing and gift this congregation is in our lives. We are so thankful to be joined with you in mission and ministry, in family and fellowship. May you and your loved ones have a Blessed and Merry Christmas. May we all know the joy of God’s grace and the gift of God’s Peace.
Be God’s, Pastor Jim
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