treasures and traditions

We finished our reading for today and with great yearning she said 

Mama, don't stop. Please keep reading. I want to see Jesus.

Isn't that the joy of Advent, sweet Addy? The waiting, the hoping, the yearning...

But please, please mama! Can't we fast forward to Jesus? I want to see Him.

My eyes filled with tears, I cupped those round cheeks in my hands, looked in her eyes and told her that that was the right answer, the most important thing she could hope for, music to her Savior's (and her mama's) ears.

Our Advent reading for today was Genesis 3 - The fall.  

She might not understand the weight of her words but they grabbed my heart.  In light of the fall, our sin, our daily struggles, the words:


I want to see Him.

 

It began last year,  this anticipating in a whole new way, starting each day, each meal preparing our hearts for His coming.  I love that she remembers already. She remembers the anticipation, the rising joy, the waiting.  And she remembers that Christmas is about Jesus.

With little ones a smidgen over three, not quite two and with one on the way, we decided last year it wasn't too early, it is never too early, to start traditions.  As Noel Piper puts so perfectly

Traditions are a vital way of displaying our greatest treasure, of showing what – Who – is most important to us.  When our traditions are displaying the Treasure of our lives, he is there to be seen by everyone... Moses assumes children will ask why.  And he instructs parents to give an answer that speaks of reality...And the answer is God – God saved us, and we honour him, worship him, thank him.  We and our children need this kind of yearly repetition to impress us with the weight of what God has done.

Sometimes the starting is what is the hardest.

Wondering if it will catch on, will they listen? will my own expectations be shattered? can we finish what we start?

Dear ones, silence your insecurities, fears and doubts and look to Jesus to make beauty out of our humble attempts, our small offerings, our ashes.  And start.  In order to become tradition, it must be started.

It will look different for each family but I hope to help by sharing a few ideas of how we started. I know in the years to come we will add more as the girls grow but it is so very critical to start now so that they see what  Who we treasure most.

We began mid-December last year with this precious Advent tool -- the Jesse Tree Journey.  We don't have table space for a tree so found a wreath of branches at our local craft store and on it we hang our ornaments.

Over time the symbolism of our wreath grew as we recognized the resemblance it has to a crown of thorns.  It reminds me with each hanging that Christmas leads us to Easter.  Bethlehem to Calvary.

Because I started mid-month and had catching up to do, we did a reading for almost every meal and we decided to also include the traditional advent candle readings as well. We would read a liturgical reading each Sunday and then with each meal we would re-light the appropriate numbers of candles for the week and the girls would say "this candle is Hope...Joy...Peace...Love" as we lit the candles.  Then, with each meal by candlelight we would do a Jesse Tree reading.

Well, we started on time this year so we are only doing one Advent reading per day but I loved how candlelight stilled our girls hearts, calmed most of their squirmy tendencies and by Christmas, they wear accustomed to eating quietly while I read.  So, we're continuing the tradition of Advent meals by candlelight.  In the morning the girls listen to me read aloud an except from Come Thou Long Expected Jesus (and yes, it may seem "over their little heads" but as parents you know how very much they pick up on?!), at lunch I am reading a chapter from a Christmas story; we are starting with Ruth Bell Graham's One Wintry Night  and in the evening when Papa is home, we'll do our Jesse Tree reading.  And this year, our Advent candles follow Mary with-child, atop a donkey en route to Bethlehem.

My knight and I are also going to go through Come Thou Long Expected Jesus together each evening once the girls are tucked into bed. So together, we can prepare our hearts as well.

You may not hear much more from me this month. I'm taking time to prepare my own heart, to quiet myself before Him, to enter in but I want to encourage you to pray, seek God this season and ask Him how your family can honor and treasure Him in your own traditions.

For the reason we do anything at all--

We want to see Him.  We want them to see Him.

Now although we cannot bequeath God to our children, we can help them know him and understand him in ways that prepare them to believe in his name. ~ Noel Piper

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  s. ~ Deut. 6:4-9