Advent Waiting

a cool way to do advent boxes

Kelley found this link to Ali Edwards a DYI guru showing how to make various advent calendars.  This one's from Martha Stewart:

Sunday, Dec 2

*You might want to write a note to mail, so include stationary, pens, and stamps.

Parents read and paraphrase/retell verses 1-9 and read the bold (vs10) outloud.

Matthew 21:1-11
When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, “The Lord needs them.” And he will send them immediately.*’ This took place to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,
‘Tell the daughter of Zion,
Look, your king is coming to you,
   humble, and mounted on a donkey,
     and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’
The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,

Read what the crowds said:
‘Hosanna to the son of David [the king]!
   Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!’

When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, ‘Who is this?’

Recall as a family when your child has been sent to do something.  You may want to send your kid on an errand to begin this exercise.

In Advent we are waiting for the messenger sent by God, Jesus.  Jesus arrives on Christmas morning. As Jesus grew up more and more people would realize that he was sent from God.
Play the telephone game to talk about how we send messages. Or write a message to mail to a friend/family member. 

Discuss how scripture can also be a testimony or messenger and that you will read a message each day until Christmas that will give us more clues to what it means for Jesus to come on Christmas.

Down Load the whole season

Each day has a verse of scripture taken from the lectionary for 2007 (year A in the three year reading cycle of the church scheduled for these four weeks anticipating Christmas).  Each day has an activity or ritual tht you can do with your family.

click here to  Download combined_advent_2007.doc . Otherwise we'll post the next days a day ahead.  We'll also post pics of the things we make with our kids and invite you to email them to troy if you wanna have your pic posted.

Here's a pic of what we made last year, more to come...

Intro

Do-It-Yourself Advent for young families
This is a combined effort by three families for our kids who are ages 1-5. We wanted to teach them expectation around the coming of Jesus, and to join Christians around the world who are reading these same scriptures on these days of Advent.

What is Advent?
Advent has traditionally been considered the new year of the Christian calendar.  Maybe you remember an advent calendar as a kid, counting down the days to Christmas.  Well, Advent is all about expectation, but mostly about expecting the messianic age, the promised king who will restore God’s world.  Advent ties our here-and-now to God’s coming promised finished creation.  It helps us re-capture what Jesus’ birth must have meant to the people of Israel, to his families and disciples. Advent helps us to look again with compassion and hope on those in need of rescue.  For the families in Capitol View, Atlanta, it gives us eyes of compassion and hope toward our neighborhood’s prostitutes, drug addicts, and trashed foreclosed homes––not to mention our own addictions and despair.  Some times we think of heaven as a place in the clouds and “the end times” as an airlift out of a world “going to hell in a hand basket.”  But the kingdom promises of Jewish prophets, and of the king who came in a humble stable, reminds us of the importance of the here-and-now.  Jesus would teach over and over, look around, heaven is breaking through.  So, Advent moves our eyes out of our own problems or the impossibility of every day life up to the hills, to the horizon, ahead of us “from which our help comes.” 

Nuts and Bolts
Each family has a invented a type of Advent calendar–envelops, pockets, boxes, whatever– with the day of the month on it leading up to Christmas morning. Each day has a verse of scripture taken from the lectionary for 2007 (year A in the three year reading cycle of the church scheduled for these four weeks anticipating Christmas).  At the beginning of each day are the things you will need to place in each pocket or box or envelope for the day of expectation. Oh, you will need one nativity set to use specifically for this month starting on Sunday December 9th.  Then pieces of it will be put out from then on.  Place the baby Jesus of this nativity set in the December 25 pocket or put it out on Christmas Eve when your kids are sleeping. You also may want to read ahead and plan (such as on Dec 20 you’ll make or buy a Gift for Jesus that you’ll then consider giving to a thirsty or hungry person –it will be helpful to know ahead of time so you might buy the gift as a family on the weekend before).

Story Telling
Parents, read these stories and scriptures ahead of time so you can paraphrase them when it’s helpful. Also let the kids get into the story by luring them in, “do you want to know what happened next?” or, “we’ll tell the rest of the story tomorrow.” The point of the Christian Lectionary is to string together Bible stories in a way that tell the Big Story (which we celebrate in Advent as The Anticipated Coming King.)