And it rolls around again . . . in case you weren't aware, it's the first Sunday in Advent. To be quite honest it sneaked up on me this year. In the midst of celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend I was almost caught unaware that the annual time of preparation was upon us.
That brings me to the basic idea of preparation. What exactly are we preparing for? That question can be answered as many different ways as there are different people to ask. In the Burke house we're preparing for Christmas. However, we choose to prepare differently than the way some others might choose. As of right now there is no tree in our house. We do plan to get one at some point, but there is definitely no rush. There are no gifts to speak of. There will be a few, but very modest ones. There are no decorations up in the house. However, the outside of the house does sport some lovely pink lights on the ornamental bushes. I must admit though, the only reason those are out is because they never came in from last year. We have no special goodies and treats in the house. I would lay wages that those will enter our house when the Berg grandparents arrive for Christmas festivities. You may ask, what are our preparations this year?
We are preparing to celebrate the incarnation of God. We are preparing to celebrate God in our midst, walking the earth and ultimately dying for our sins. I know, it's kind of dark to be bringing the whole Jesus' death piece into the Christmas story. I should save that for Lent and Holy Week. However, it's true. This season is all about the incarnation of God. God became flesh. Jesus was fully human while at the same time being fully God. God came to be with us, to teach us and to die for us. That's what we're preparing for.
How are we doing this? We reading the nativity stories piece by piece from each Gospel over the course of Advent . . . and we're reading them twice. Once in "M^"s Oromifa Bible and then again out of our English Bible. We doing this as part of our FAITH5 bedtime rituals. Here is how this works.
1. SHARE. We share our high (best part of the day) and our low (worst part of the day).
2. READ. We read first the Bible verses from the Oromifa Bible and then from the English Bible.
3. TALK. We talk about what the verses mean and how it helps prepare our hearts for Christmas.
4. PRAY. Each family member chooses people to pray for and we pray together.
5. BLESS. Every night Kevin and I each bless all 5 girls while tucking them into bed. Often times the girls bless us as well.
This has been an amazing tradition that we started when the girls were very small. I can't take credit for coming up with it. All credit is due to my friend Rich Melheim. You can check out more of his great ideas at http://www.faithink.com/.
Who knows where these preparations will take us this Advent season. However, we know that we're excited to celebrate the incarnation of God together as a new family of 7. May your family be blessed as you prepare for the Christ child as well.
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