Advent Favorite

First Coming
Madeleine L'Engle

God did not wait till the world was ready,
till...the nations were at peace.
God came when the heavens were unsteady,
and prisoners cried out for release.

God did not wait for the perfect time.
God came when the need was deep and great.
God dined with sinners in all their grime,
turned water into wine. God did not wait

till hearts were pure. In joy God came
to a tarnished world of sin and doubt.
To a world like ours of anguished shame
God came, and God's light would not go out.

God came to a world which did not mesh,
to heal its tangles, shield its scorn.
In the mystery of Word made Flesh
the Maker of the stars was born.

We cannot wait til the world is sane
to raise our songs with joyful voice,
for to share our grief, to touch our pain,

God came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice!


The Emmaus Road has some other really nice poems for Advent up as well. :)

The art is from Creative Thursday...a blog that I really enjoy.

Wowzers...Santa Brings it out in People

I don't have a whole lot to share right now. I will report that the projects are getting clicked off the list in a timely manner.

If you are interested in conversations around Santa and how/if to communicate him to your kids, head over to The Paris Project or Peacebang. Both can be found as links on the left.

At three, Santa isn't a huge force in our family. BB doesn't want to meet him and isn't completely sure about him. I think in coming years we will focus a bit more heavily on St. Nicholas and the man behind 'The Man', so to speak....oh, and Jesus. We'll focus on him as well.

I will share that the one time I shared my family's (me and husband) take on this with friends, I was met with surprising passion on the topic of how it "should" be done. To me it has always been just a cute part of the larger season.

And because, once I get going, I can't stop, I will add: as I listen to people talk about Santa, I am struck by how often it is a threat..."You better....because Santa is watching." "Santa only brings toys to good girls and boys." BLECH. It does strike me as being completely opposite to "God born as one of us to free us from sin, and to know our pain."


In other news, I just stumbled across this blog, Design Sponge...what fun projects! I like the scarves.

Scenes from the Nativity

On this Second Sunday in Advent I wanted to share some of our nativities. Only one of them has a real story...but after taking them out each year, they each have a place in my heart.


This one, while a bit ubiquitous these days, is perhaps, my favorite. My parents gave it to us for our first Christmas. I like the simplicity of it.


This one came from my trip to Palestine.


This one was a wedding gift from my husband's Aunt and Uncle. It, too, is from Palestine.


This one belongs to the kids. It is out all year long. The animals take turns in the barn as well as the manger.


This one is from my Grandma. For thirty-three Christmases she gave me a silver bell like the one in the first photo. We have a gorgeous tree! When it came time to stop that tradition, she began to give me pieces for this Nativity. We have three kings as well, but they won't appear until January 6...Epiphany.

Then, there is this one. It makes me smile and brings tears to my eyes each year. It was made for me by a confirmation student. It was a total surprise...both that he gave me a Christmas gift and that the gift was a handmade Nativity. He was a slightly heavy, smart, sensitive junior high boy who grew up with parents who did not have the gifts to be supportive of his intelligence, interests or sensitivity. His family struggled with finances. They struggled with their faith as well.

So did their son.

It was a class made up of four boys. They were in 7th grade, none of them wanted to be at church after school each Wednesday but three of them grew up and participated in, the life of the small, rural congregation, so it home to them.

We'll call him Joel. Joel's parents, while themselves either against, or apathetic towards the church, forced him to attend Confirmation. And, so with these confusing messages, Joel rebelled a bit in class. He claimed not to believe in much, he once told me he was just there "studying the Christians."

So, much to my surprise this Nativity showed up one Christmas. I don't know why he made it. But I can't help but imagine that God was involved. What even gave him the idea? What went on in him as he designed, cut out, wood burned and then carefully penciled in the names of each person? I can only pray, trust and believe Joel grew in faith.

Oh, friends, he was so proud as he gave it to me. If you have ever been present as the veneer and bravado on a junior high boy comes down, you know the look on his face. His giggy joy and pride was hard for him to hide. I remember trying to share in his joy without embarassing him by crying or getting too emotional...not an easy feat. We lost contact after he was Confirmed. He is among one of many kids from that Call that I pray for...hoping that temptations didn't get the best of them and that God's grace grants them strength to grow into the full person God created them to be.

This Nativity...this one, this one is the only one that truly allows me a glimpse of the incarnation. God with us. God for us. God as us.

Advent Blessings.

Little Elves Came to Help

From the chapter of my life titled, You Can No Longer Do It All, comes this little story about my Christmas cards.

I've made our cards each year. I usually had a goal of getting them to people around the first Sunday in Advent. We have a Christmas card list just over one hundred people. I have high expectations for myself.

All of the above information becomes a stumbling block when you add an infant and a newly minted three year old and my current energy level.

So, going into this year, I tried to come up with easy cards with limited steps involved. But with limited hours for my Card Muse to work, I ended up with 5 step-cards that I wasn't totally in love with/inspired by. So, I put them off. And, off. And, off.

On the first Sunday of Advent my parents and Grandmother were here to celebrate our son's birthday. They became my Christmas Elves.

In matter of hours we folded cards, stamped a blue background, cut out green squares, stamped trees, stamped greetings, punched stars and glued them on.

It would never have happened without them. The best part is, their gift didn't just get the cards done, it jump started my Advent energy level. For me sometimes, when there is so much to do, it becomes easier to do nothing...but once the cards were completed and lined up so carefully by my Grandma on our dining room table, a weight lifted and the rest of the holiday list just started to fly.

Thanks, Elves! Love you so much.

Birthday Cake #3