This year, our family is intentionally celebrating the seasons of the Church Calendar together. This is a new experience for everyone in our family. Our hope is that by following the Church Calendar, we will begin to form rhythms in our lives that help us remember and take part in the story of God. As I said in my introductory post to this series, “We are living in God’s story, and we want to be a part of celebrating that story – both the story of the past, the present, and the future to come.”
Every Saturday I will give an update to what we are learning in the current season. Though our calendar year begins on January 1st, the Church Calendar begins with the season of Advent. This week we’ll take a look back at Advent and Christmas!
Advent: A Season of Hopeful Waiting
The season of Advent takes place beginning four Sundays before Christmas and ending on Christmas Eve. Advent reminds us of how long the people of God waited for the Messiah and leads us to long for the day of Christ’s return. Just like God’s people hoped and prayed for the promised Messiah, we look forward with expectation for the day that Jesus will return in glory and usher in the Kingdom.
In our culture, Christmas celebrations often begin during the season of Advent. This can make the practice of waiting difficult when we spend the whole season in celebration. Our family has many Christmas traditions and fun activities that we do together each year. We decided that we wanted to mix our fun Christmas traditions with purposeful and meaningful activities that would help us dwell on Jesus’ birth and His coming again.
Advent Resources
We used two main resources to help our family observe Advent together. The first resource we used was GoodKind Advent Blocks. I looked at a lot of different Advent resources and loved how visual and simple this one was! The set contains 25 numbered blocks that you display in your home, along with a book of Bible stories that point to the coming of Christ. There is also a star block and an earth block. The star moves along the blocks until it reaches the earth at the end. Each night, we would turn a block to its picture and read the corresponding story. Simeon loved holding the blocks and looking at all the different pictures. Each night we would read from the book together, “For such a long time, God seemed far away. But now He has heard what we hoped and we prayed. God is coming to earth… to stay!” Simeon caught on so quickly to the storyline and would help fill in words to the saying each night. Most nights he would add a “with Simeon” to the end – each night he had it ingrained in him that God had come to stay with him.
The other resource we used was the Advent liturgies in Sacred Seasons by Danielle Hitchen*. We will be using the liturgies in this book for every season of the church year. During breakfast each Sunday morning, we would light a candle and participate together in prayer, reading Scripture, and singing an Advent hymn. We used a candle to signal to Simeon that it was time to listen. When we were finished, we would let him blow it out. Having a candle as a visual is so helpful and attention-grabbing to a child – what child doesn’t love fire?! Next year we hope to add a traditional Advent wreath and candles.
I personally used O Come, O Come, Emmanuel by Jonathan Gibson for my personal quiet times*. This led me all the way through Advent and Christmastide. It is a liturgy for daily worship, and this particular one focuses on the incarnation of Christ in many of the songs and prayers.
Advent Lessons
There is nothing like seeing this season through the eyes of a child. Of course, I mean in seeing his eyes light up at Christmas lights or a new Christmas movie. But I also mean in learning about the coming of Jesus.
Each night, Simeon would look forward with joyful anticipation to what the new picture on his block would be. Some nights he would even remind us that it was time to do our block story. Even if the reading time looked a little chaotic (we have a very swirly two-year-old!), he would always help fill in the words at the end. Anytime he would see Baby Jesus in a manger scene, he would remind us that God was coming back. It naturally became a part of our day to talk about Christ coming when we made it part of our normal rhythm.
Seeing Simeon so excited about the story of Jesus and hearing him constantly remember it throughout the day reminded me that we should also be joyfully anticipating the return of Christ. We should daily be dwelling on and speaking of the story of God, and it should lead us to wonder and hope.
Christmastide: A Season of Celebration!
The Christmas season begins on December 25 and ends on January 5. It is a time of feasting and celebration of our Savior’s birth! We spent most of the Christmas season with our families exchanging gifts, eating wonderful meals, and enjoying one another. It was a beautiful time together!
We finished our Advent Blocks on Christmas Day with a challenge to go and tell the world that Jesus has come to stay with us. It is good news meant for all people! We also continued to do our liturgies from Sacred Seasons, with a special one for Christmas Day*.
Our Christmas celebrations were marked with special family traditions, and we hope in the years to come, we can add more traditions from the Church Calendar. Throughout our year in the Church Calendar, we are not trying to do it all but instead choosing to add in a few rhythms at a time. If you would like to join us, Sacred Seasons* is a great resource to begin with! Danielle Hitchen gives a wonderful introduction to the Church Calendar for those who are just getting started and so many suggestions for observing it as a family.
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