On the first day of advent, we’re supposed to light our advent candles. I bought a six dollar candle tin at Trader Joe’s, then I couldn’t find the lighter until the next day.
On the second day of advent, we’re supposed to go get, or put up your Christmas tree. But don’t decorate, the guide says. Waiting is an important part of experiencing advent! First of all, this is way too early. I already like to wait. Second of all, what tree? We don’t have one, don’t want to borrow one to return days before we head back to the field, don’t want to buy one right now. We’re still figuring out a tree.
On the third day of advent, we’re supposed to set up part of our nativity scene. Leave the magi in another room, the guide says. They don’t enter the Christmas story until after Jesus is born! We did not, I regret to inform you, pack a nativity in our luggage.
The fourth day is a real doozy. I need a whole bunch of supplies, in a cloth bag, so my children can solve the mystery of advent.
Tomorrow, December 1, we’re supposed to make dried orange ornaments, but we’ll be out of the house all day. Making dried orange ornaments kind of takes all day.
This is advent on home assignment.
Everything is more complicated, and every day that we’ve torn off the paper chain I so optimistically made, which instructs us in an activity we can’t accomplish, my mood dampens. Speaking of damp, this week our kids discovered Seattle snow, which is beautiful while it falls but once it blankets the ground, can be splashed.
We aren’t prepared for snow either.
Needless to say, we’ve been improvising. We are satisfied with our single balsam fir scented candle. We will get a tree, and when we do, we’ll say the Christmas tree blessing in our advent guide. Susanna selected stones of different sizes to represent each person in the Nativity scene, and I found one that can be printed. She made a wire star to be our tree topper. They have been playing in the snow in inadequate clothing, but they don’t care. They get cold, they come in, we dry their clothes in the dryer, they go back out. And repeat, in sloshy, wet snow.
Tonight, I read aloud about the mystery of advent from our guide, and the simple “clue” in each symbol: the purple cloth to represent our King, the manger to represent how Jesus is a different kind of King. Evergreen, for God’s living, everlasting love, a wreath for His never-ending Kingdom. A star, the guide the way for the wise men, and finally, a candle, for the light of the World.
I came into this study unprepared, inadequate, and a bit frustrated by the lack of magic in our current, temporary, home. But then I read these words from our guide.
“During the next four weeks of Advent, we will watch. We will wait. We will get ready for God to show up. And when God shows up, he does it in a way no one expected: As a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger, born to save us all.”
My breath hitched upon reading this simple declaration. Our family will also spend the next few weeks waiting for God to show up. We will be waiting to see how God will provide the support we need to return to the field.
I am not just celebrating advent with my family this year. I am living inside it. To be honest, it is not as glamorous as I have made it in the past. It is not as tidy, and certainly not as magical. Perhaps Mary had the same disappointing thoughts the night her Son was born and placed in a manger. But it’s more real than ever. We know God’s people were asking what we ourselves are asking: will God do what we are begging Him to do?
“We will get ready for God to show up.”
We are not without hope. And in the meantime, we will experience the advent of His first coming with new perspective. (Which, of course, was probably the point all along.)
praise & prayer
:: So many praises! Before I quit Instagram for a month, I was counting gifts with the hashtag #rosaliegivesthanks.
:: We’re praying for an additional $1,500 in monthly support.
:: My favorite thing about advent so far has been the kids’ enthusiasm and grace with me, as well as Susanna’s sweet prayer to “learn what you want us to learn as we study what advent is.”
some confetti
:: I don’t know if this is confetti or self-promotion, but Dorothy Huynh took our family photos this year and they are luminous.
some shameless self promotion
:: I wrote the intro for the latest Taking Route newsletter. It’s not just for expats! If you’d like a copy, just let me know and I’ll forward it to you. In it, I reviewed a few advent resources.
shop & empower
:: Trades of Hope still has some great deals on holiday gifts. I snagged a few this year, and something for myself. Lot’s of stocking stuffers, including this perfectly sized jar of 100% natural raw honey, sourced from local hives in Baltimore. Every purchase provides safe jobs with fair wages for women overcoming poverty, addiction, abuse, and human trafficking.
some inspiration
Lord, you have done this whole great thing, making known all these great promises for the sake of your servant and according to your will. Lord, there is no one like you, and there is no God besides you, as all we have heard confirms.
1 Chronicles 17:19-20