Advent

We started our Advent celebrations tonight.  For those of you who don't celebrate Advent,  it is all about focusing on the coming - the past birth of Jesus, the presence of the Holy Spirit with us today, and the second coming of Christ in the future. Focusing on this keeps us from getting caught up in all the commercialism that is so common now and helps us to focus on the true meaning of the season.  Each day we will be reading scripture and doing a special activity.  Tonight we lit the Prophecy Candle and introduced our key verse which is John 8:12 – Jesus said to the people, “I am the light of the world.  If you follow me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” 

We enjoyed sparkling grape juice and Christmas cookies as we talked about what the prophets of the Old Testament said about Jesus the Messiah.  We read Micah 5:2 “But you, O Bethlehem, are only a small village in Judah.  Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past.”

We also read John 7:42 – “For the Scriptures clearly state that the Messiah will be born of the royal line of David, in Bethlehem, the village where King David was born.”

We discussed how we would have felt if we had lived in the town written about in the Scriptures as the place where the Messiah would be born and how God can use small people, families or towns as part of His special plan to bring people the message of Jesus.  Then we discussed how Jesus can use us to tell others about His birth.

Next, we planted an Amaryllis bulb.  We’ll watch it grow during Advent and it should be grown by Christmas. After that the boys received their first gifts of the season.  Zach got a DVD and John Charles got a hopper ball.  We ended our night by watching a DVD of The Living Christmas Tree from the year that John Charles played Baby Jesus.  I’m so happy for nights like tonight and for opportunities to draw closer to Him and to see my children do the same.